Forbidden Jutsu
by RukaIayLomperGay
Summary: Iruka performs a forbidden jutsu on accident. Now he is stuck as a twelve year old. The clock is ticking as Iruka starts to take on some of the side effects. KakaIru, SasuNaru, SasuIru, NejiAkuri
1. Forbidden Jutsu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't  
work for the rabbit"  
~R.E. Shay  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Chapter One: The Forbidden Jutsu  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka was walking home and decided to stop by the park and just take in nature for a while.  
  
Today had been a long day. Kakashi had caused him to oversleep so he was late for school but just in time for a riot between his girl and boy students. He still had no idea what it was all about but the two worst students he had, not in grades but the fact that they fought all the time caused it.  
  
Rika and Toby.they were demons in their cute little kid guises. He could tell that Toby obviously liked Rika but Rika was obviously very annoyed of the young lad even though every once in a while he would catch her smiling at the boy.  
  
After he had gotten the riot settled down and all the apologies he thought should happen his class was then interrupted by a very bored and hungry blonde. Naruto wanted some ramen. The whole class loved and looked up to Naruto, who wouldn't the boy was just pure lovable and would play with the whole class.  
  
After a while of getting absolutely nothing done he had let the class go early because they were obviously not going to learn anything that day.  
  
Iruka sighed as he looked at the tall sun from underneath a tree. It was only 2 o'clock. He looked around at his students who had decided to stay at school and play on the playground. Aw to be young again.  
  
Iruka laughed at the thought, he was still rather young but it seemed that the stress and work of caring for all the children was taking a toll on his body, not as much outwardly as inwardly.  
  
Like the other day, Iruka's back went out when he had gotten pulled onto the hardwood floor of his apartment by a certain jounin and had tried to get up only to go back down again.  
  
"Iruka-sensei?"  
  
Iruka looked down to see three of his best female students. Kasha who had outrageous red hair, Genii who was always quiet until it became jutsu time and she always excelled greatly. Finally, Conan, who was the smartest and actually the most outgoing student. She was rather short for her age, and had long dark violet hair.  
  
"Yes ladies? How may I help you three?" Iruka smiled.  
  
"Um." Genii obviously embarrassed about what she was going to say because a small tint of pink came to her cheeks.  
  
"We were just um. wondering." Kasha started to trail off with her cheeks becoming rosy too.  
  
"We want to know what you looked like at our age!" Conan shouted seeming to get a little anxious to find out the answer.  
  
Iruka taken aback by the question, smiled. "Well, I could show you but I was sooo cute!" He laughed.  
  
All three of the girl's eyes lit up. "Can you show us?!" they all asked at once.  
  
"Well I could." Iruka grinned, "but then you ladies would fall in love with me, and what kind of teacher would I be then?"  
  
"A very good one!" Conan smiled as the other girls giggled at the thought of falling in love with their 'old' sensei.  
  
Iruka smiled as he began to do a few seals with his hands.  
  
~Poof~  
  
A cloud of smoke went around the teacher.  
  
As it cleared, Iruka noticed the girl's eyes brighten up. He stepped in front of them, not him but himself at the age of 12.  
  
"YOU ARE SO CUTE!" The girls yelled at once jumping up and walking around him like three vultures examining their prey before the kill.  
  
"Wow Iruka-sensei! You're so pretty its almost like you're a little girl!" Conan said it first as the other two girls nodded. Iruka just sighed as he tried to keep his smile on. So many times when he was little was he mistaken for a little girl, so many times.  
  
Just then an idea came to Iruka's head. There was another person who loved the way he looked when he was young. Iruka smiled as he could surprise the jounin tonight.  
  
He quickly poofed back to his old self, reminding the three girls that it was just an illusion. He jumped out of the smoke and bowed to the ladies, "I have to go now but lets keep this between us for now, okay ladies?" he smiled as he jumped off after they nodded in agreement.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka laid down on his bed. He still had a few hours until Kakashi would be done with his missions, and since everything was already ready he took take a small nap. Today had been a rather long day after all.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^dream  
  
Iruka looked up. There was Kakashi and Gai battling, but they were younger. He looked at himself and he was 12 again.  
  
"Hn?" He looked up at the two battling boys.  
  
Kakashi looked over in his direction and smiled. Gai stopped too and waved.  
  
"Iruka-kun! You're awake!" They both ran over to the boy and sat down beside him. They were at the school's playground, but why were they there? Iruka thought to himself.  
  
"Okay Iruka since you awake now." Iruka looked over to Kakashi. "Time to show you that jutsu I was making!" Kakashi jumped up and grabbed Iruka's wrist pulling him up too.  
  
"Okay now, watch carefully." Kakashi did a whole bunch of seals slowly so that he could see and then repeated them quickly.  
  
~Poof~  
  
Iruka looked up at Kakashi to see him holding a very shiny pointy object, it almost looked like a star.  
  
"Wow!" Iruka couldn't believe it. It was so beautiful.  
  
"Okay Iruka now go get your star!" Kakashi smiled.  
  
Iruka did all the seals slowly so that he could make sure he had them right, then he repeated them quickly.  
  
~Boom~  
  
Iruka's heart stopped, his body became covered in pain. He held his chest as he looked up only to see he was alone. The field then became darkness, the pain was overbearing. It hurt, he wanted to cry but he couldn't. His voice was gone.  
  
He looked around frantically but only saw darkness. His stomach began to hurt, it felt like all the power was getting pulled out of him, his strength, and his chakra.  
  
His head began to pound, it hurt, the pain was killing him. A painful, slow death would be relief for what he was feeling.  
  
He tried to scream but nothing would come out. He dropped to his knees in the darkness. What was happening to him? Why? Why was this happening to him?  
  
Every single one of his muscles and bones hurt. Why couldn't he wake up from this horrible dream? Or was it real? Was it really happening to him?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka jumped up. He was in his room again. He clinched his stomach, he was still in pain. His whole body hurt, tears came down his face as he began to sob.  
  
He stopped. He looked at his hands. They were small, his cloths were too big. What was going on?! He jumped off of his bed, it only came up to his waist. His pants slid down and fell off easily.  
  
"What!?" He cried, it hurt, he was confused.  
  
He tried to take a step but it hurt too much, his vest was falling off of him, it was getting hard to breath. He felt to weak, like he had no more strength or.chakra. He gasped.  
  
"What is happening?!" he yelled at himself. He pulled off the heavy vest so that maybe he could walk to the bathroom. He was going to puke.  
  
When did his body get so small. He slowly made his way across his house, when was his house ever this big? His legs gave way and he fell forward barely able to catch himself.  
  
He began to crawl, it hurt, his whole body. But why? How was this happening? Why him? What on earth was going on?!  
  
He reached his bathroom and used a counter to lift himself up.  
  
Iruka felt like life had stopped.  
  
He looked into the mirror. He was 12 again?! "What!" he tried to yell, his voice was hoarse, trying to touch the mirror but it was too far away and high for his little hands to reach. He traced every feature of his face, his body throbbed in pain of movement.  
  
He threw up.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Kakashi arrived at Iruka's apartment a few hours later, but always on time, always. (wink)  
  
"Iruka! I got your note *reads* Come over = food" Kakashi smiled, he loved Iruka's cooking. He walked into the dark apartment.  
  
"Iruka?" Kakashi got a little worried. He felt a disturbed presence all in through out the apartment. He looked around none of the lights were on, it looked like little disturbance was made that day in any of the beginning rooms.  
  
He walked on, preparing for anything, he tried to sense chakra but didn't get anything. Was Iruka gone? No, that wasn't like him.  
  
Kakashi pushed the bedroom door open peering into the room. The bed was messy, as if there had been some kind of struggle, beside the bed were Iruka's pants and not to far form that was his chunnin vest.  
  
"Iruka?" Kakashi shouted this time just in case no one was hearing him before.  
  
Then a sound of someone coughing came from the bathroom. Kakashi jumped over to the door swiftly.  
  
Iruka tried to get Kakashi's attention by coughing again, his voice was shattered. Hearing Kakashi enter his house was like an answered prayer for the young chunnin, he couldn't take it anymore and knew they had to get to Hokage-sama right away.  
  
Kakashi looked in to find a little boy with a large shirt on, hanging over him like a nightgown. The room smelt horrible, like sickness and death. Kakashi looked at the boy, it was Iruka, right? Iruka when he was little? Is this some kind of creepy nightmare?  
  
Iruka tried to move toward the jounin, letting go of the bathroom counter, but he lost his balance immediately and fell forward. He felt two large arms wrap around his waist catching him, but also sending sharp signals of pain to every part they touched.  
  
"Iruka?" Kakashi held the boy in his arms, like a mother holding a newborn child. Iruka looked at Kakashi, his eyes filled with nothing but pain and despair. A look Kakashi prayed the chunnin had lost a long time ago.  
  
Iruka opened his mouth to speak, but only a scratchy, hoarse cry came out. He tried to think of ways to tell Kakashi this isn't fun and he needs to get to Hokage right away. He lift his hands up a put them on the confused jounin's face.  
  
That was proof enough for Kakashi that this wasn't a dream. Something was wrong, why was Iruka so small? Why couldn't he speak? Kakashi decided that he should take Iruka to Hokage right away. And with that thought he vanished with Iruka, or the child that looked like Iruka, in his arms.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Kakashi! What brings you here?" smiled the Hokage as a cloud of smoke came up behind him.  
  
"Hokage-sama! Iru...!"  
  
"Did you feel that disturbance in the city not too long ago? It wasn't too big, but I have a very bad feeling about it. Is that what you are here for?" The old man turned around opening his eyes to look at the jounin. He noticed a small child in his arms; it seemed that barely if any life was flowing from the small body.  
  
His face went pale. "Who is that Kakashi?" he sad getting more serious as he walked up to the taller man.  
  
"I.I think its Iruka Hokage-sama." Kakashi looked at the Hokage with a worried glance.  
  
"Iruka? Hn?" Saidaime looked at Kakashi with a confused look. Iruka began to move around trying to get Kakashi to put him down. "Oh sorry!" Kakashi let the boy down, but kept his hands on his shoulders so that he could keep him balanced.  
  
Iruka looked up at the Hokage, they were the same height, again. Hokage almost jumped when he saw the scar across the boy's face. Why wasn't he sensing any chakra form his body? What was going on?  
  
Even the Hokage became confused. "Iruka?"  
  
He looked Iruka in the eyes; he let out a deep sigh. "What is going on? Can you please explain that to me?"  
  
Iruka sighed, no he couldn't, his voice was trashed and even he had no idea what was going on. He tried to move his hands, and with lots of pain he pointed to his throat and opened his mouth letting out a hoarse cry again. It was not a very welcoming sound.  
  
"Kakashi go get these people, they may be able to help me." He handed Kakashi a list. When did he make this? Kakashi thought to himself as he looked worried over to Iruka again and then vanished.  
  
"Here you go Iruka." Saidaime handed Iruka a glass fool of very foul smelling liquid. "It will help your throat." The Hokage gave a very worried smile.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Kakashi returned quickly in a poof of smoke followed by several others. He looked beside him, Hiashi Hyuga. Suzume, Akane, and Rei, three teachers from the school. Kurenai, Asuma and Gai if he wasn't out of town on a mission with his team, he would just have to be briefed when he returned the next day.  
  
Kakashi didn't really understand why any of them had to come except for Hiashi, because he would explain why there was a disturbance in Iruka's chakra.  
  
"Kakashi! Why on earth are we disturbing the Hokage?! You scare me half to death and then expect me to follow you", yelled a very agitated Rei.  
  
"Calm down Rei-san." The Hokage walked into the lobby with a small figure following him.  
  
"Oh! I am sorry Hokage-sama!" Rei did a small bow as he walked past her. She looked up and saw the small, very familiar looking boy.  
  
"Is he why we are here?" Akane smiled at Iruka. "Are you going to be a new student?"  
  
Iruka looked in aw of the two ladies, did they not recognize him? He looked around at everyone; they either seemed tired, confused, or angry. The only person who didn't seem too emotional was Hiashi.  
  
He was staring at Iruka, or what seemed to be at him, you never really knew with his milky eyes. "Iruka-sensei? Why do you look like that?" Hiashi walked over to the boy.  
  
Everyone stopped. "Hn?"  
  
"That is why you are all here, now please come with me, Iruka will you please stay here until you can speak again." Saidaime turned back around and walked into his office, followed by everyone who was still staring at their now very young friend Iruka.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka looked around, he still hurt but not as much anymore. Saidaime had put some healing powder in the drink, which tasted awful.  
  
He began to stretch more and more as the pain faded, it felt nice. He could even feel his throat become less hoarse. He felt lighter, more energetic, and a bit stronger too. Was it because he was so small?  
  
He looked at his skin, it was a bit paler than his usual tone but still more tan than Kakashi or Sasuke.  
  
He decided to see if he could still use his skills, he was still a master of the basics. Kakashi had called him that once, and after thought about, it was very true. He was a teacher, one who taught basic skills, he had to know them in and out and from any point of view in hopes of getting at least a few students interested.  
  
He then realized. He had no pants on. He so was so busy with Kakashi and then rushing over here he didn't really think about it, until now. The shirt was rather large on him, he was small for a twelve year old, he was even when he really was that age.  
  
The shirt fell above his knees, he sighed in relief that no one really took notice. He walked to one side of the room, properly dressed or not, he still wanted to test his skills.  
  
He began to concentrate, his body was just getting out of pain and well it might hurt so he decided to prepare himself just in case. He looked up and took off, speeding to the other side of the lobby. This was new speed, it was different, it was faster than he had ever ran before.  
  
The door on the other side opened. Ebisu walked in quickly, "Hokage- sama?!"  
  
Iruka tried to stop, he slid his feet, stopping dead straight in front of the man. He looked down.  
  
"Oh, hello there. Wow you were going pretty fast!" Ebisu grinned, if only he could get Konohamaru to be that fast. "Heehee, keep that up and you might even be able to be a jounin! Or even Hokage!"  
  
Iruka looked at him, he never really liked the guy, it was something about him, it got on his nerves, but he was still polite and respecting as he was to everyone else.  
  
"Unlike that stupid blond brat, who will never get close." Ebisu mumbled as he walked into the office. What? Iruka looked at him, did he just say.? He felt angry, today was not a good day, and now someone was denouncing Naruto.his Naruto.  
  
~BAM~  
  
"ACK!" Ebisu grabbed his shin. "That hurt you brat!" He scolded Iruka who was just smirking, he always wanted to hurt that guy, and no one criticizes Naruto and gets away with it.  
  
"Grrrr, no one gets away with doing that, not even you brat!" Ebisu was obviously having a bad day as well, but nothing compared to Iruka's.  
  
~BAM~  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Kakashi and Saidaime walked into the room, followed by everyone else who all had worried expressions on their faces, apparently from the conversation thy had just had with the Hokage.  
  
"What the heck is that noise?! Iruka?" Kakashi looked around. Everyone's mouths dropped open.  
  
There was little Iruka and Ebisu. They had an equal hold on each other, with Kunais at their throats, both growling at each other. Then they looked up.  
  
Ebisu looked back down to see Iruka wasn't in his hold anymore. "What the? That kid is good." He mumbled to himself watching Iruka sit down on the couch beside him.  
  
"Ebisu! Explain yourself!" Kakashi yelled in a very over protective tone, he glared at Ebisu, who was obviously taken aback by such rudeness and informalities.  
  
"I.I.Hn?" Ebisu was a very confused person; he looked back at Iruka who just seemed upset. "I was coming here to talk to Hokage." He finally stated. "About his grandson's improvement in his skills."  
  
"Well, obviously not because of you." Iruka muttered taking everyone from surprise. Iruka looked up, he could talk again.  
  
"What the.that is the last straw brat!" Ebisu turned around but was stopped by a suddenly appearing Kakashi in front of him. "Hn? Kakashi move!"  
  
"I don't think you want that Master Ebisu," snickered Rei, "when we came in here he obviously had the upper hand against you." This thought made Ebisu furious.  
  
"Besides now you wouldn't hit a fellow teacher now would you?" Akane said very politely.  
  
"WHAT!!?" Ebisu turned around again. "You cannot be serious! A kid teacher!"  
  
Suzume smiled, it was her turn. If there was anything that the other teachers loved to do, it was make fun of this guy. "Also, Don't you recognize him? He isn't a kid, he is 24."  
  
Ebisu was again a very confused man.  
  
"I think that we need to get moving and fill Iruka in, already." Hiashi seemed annoyed. The three teachers sighed; he had ruined their game.  
  
"Ir.Iru.Iruka?" Ebisu looked at he little boy, he did have the scar and the eyes. Iruka looked up at Hiashi, plans?  
  
"Why are you pretending to be small Iruka-sensei?" Ebisu pointed at the height difference.  
  
The Hokage sighed; he was too old to handle the ignorance of others. "He is training for a mission and he is practicing his character, so now would you please dismiss yourself for now Master Ebisu."  
  
He quickly nodded and left, after apologizing to Iruka for his behavior.  
  
Everyone sighed.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka stood still.  
  
Hiashi scanned over his body using his Byakugen. He looked over at Saidaime with a stunned look on his face.  
  
"Well?" The Hokage took a puff of his pipe.  
  
"This is strange," Iruka looked up at Hiashi spoke, "You see, you know how chakra is energy from the mind and body? And that it mixes together to become chakra, so we can use it for our ninjitsus?"  
  
"Get to the point Hiashi." Saidaime glared at him.  
  
"Iruka's mental energy and body energy are there, that is what is left. Whatever jutsu Iruka did, if it wasn't one done on him, seems to have taken a lot out of him. But the strange thing is." Hiashi looked at Iruka and sighed.  
  
"Its like he isn't producing anymore energies, like it has stalled itself."  
  
Iruka looked up, he had taught about chakra a lot, and new almost everything about it. What Hiashi just said would never be possible.  
  
"hmmmm" Saidaime looked over at Iruka. "Could everyone please leave me alone with Iruka please, except you Rei." Everyone stepped out as Rei walked over to the Hokage.  
  
"Rei I am going to need you to use your vast knowledge of forbidden jutsus."  
  
She looked at the Hokage surprised. "I will try Hokage-sama, but I haven't studied those since I have become a teacher, since I moved here."  
  
"That's okay, I think I might know what, but I need you to agree before I get that scroll." Rei nodded her head. Iruka looked up, forbidden jutsu? And what was the emphasis on that for?  
  
"Now please Iruka, do the seals very slowly." Iruka did so as they both stared at his hands intensely. Iruka got worried as he saw Rei's face get worried.  
  
"No need to go on." She finally muttered. Iruka stopped, what was it?  
  
"So you agree."  
  
"Yes Hokage-sama, those were the seals for the 'Art of Mutation', also known as the last resort for ninja's who were caught in battle that had no training, or no self defense."  
  
Iruka looked up, "Art of Mutation?"  
  
Rei looked at Iruka as if she was about to cry, cry for him.  
  
"What is it? Hokage-sama?" Iruka looked at him worriedly.  
  
Saidaime sighed, he didn't want to tell his best teacher, the man in charge of every student in the village. The man who secretly knew everything the Hokage knew or even more. He didn't want to tell him the horrible things, the rumors, anything about that jutsu. It was horrible.  
  
Rei saw this in the Hokage's facial expression, if not already in his eyes.  
  
"It is a horrible jutsu created by a no longer existent village." She stopped and looked at Iruka, "They were destroyed by the people who used this jutsu and lived."  
  
Iruka's mouth dropped, no way. No way was this happening to him. This was just some kind of sick joke right?  
  
"Iruka you should know that you might have a high risk of surviving this." She tried to smile at him, "Because you remained human."  
  
Iruka raised his eyebrow, "What do you mean?"  
  
"When people used this jutsu they used it to turn into powerful creatures, not to help them stay young or get older. Their bodies actually change into the creature, they are no longer human, or can count as human. That is why your body was in so much pain, your bones, muscles, everything, it all turned into the younger you, it all shrunk into a twelve year old's body frame."  
  
Iruka got a puzzled expression on his face. It was too much for him to take in. "I.Is there a way to turn back?" He prayed.  
  
"Yes, but there is a time limit, it is different for every person though."  
  
Iruka looked up. "What do I need to do?"  
  
"I don't know, but I will look for it! Iruka-sensei I will try my best!" Rei smiled. If anyone could find it, it would be her.  
  
"Alright, so Rei I will leave that part up to you, and I will join you later. As for now, Iruka, your students will be divided among the rest of the teachers, and I will leave you under Kakashi's supervision"  
  
Iruka looked up, "My students?"  
  
"You will not be allowed to teach like that, especially since we have no idea how long you have, stress may decrease your time."  
  
"But!"  
  
"No Buts Iruka. I will expect no more out of you considering the matter." The Hokage looked sternly at Iruka. "Kakashi"  
  
A poof of smoke and he was behind the Hokage. "Yes Hokage-sama?"  
  
"I expect you heard all of that?"  
  
Kakashi nodded. Iruka looked up, if he was going to listen then why not let him stay in the room?  
  
"Because of his ability to read and memorize even his eyes could memorize that jutsu because of how slow I had you do them, without the sharingan." The Hokage looked at Iruka answering his questioning expression.  
  
"Iruka do you feel any better? Stronger? Faster?" Rei suddenly jumped in.  
  
"Um.yeah I do actually, I feel a lot lighter too. Why do you need to know that?" Iruka looked at her puzzled as she wrote it down.  
  
"I may keep asking you more questions like that over a few days, it will help with the research." She smiled.  
  
"Days?" Iruka looked at them concerned. He was going to have to remain like that for days?  
  
Rei sighed, "It might even be weeks Iruka, I am so sorry but that Jutsu is not well known and the village that scroll is in, is at least a 48 hour trip running the whole time!" Rei looked down not wanting to face his eyes.  
  
Iruka nodded. He looked around, he wanted to cry but wasn't going to show it, and he was so tired too.  
  
His eyes met Kakashi's as Rei and Saidaime made plans to meet up later. His eyes looked worried, if ever you could read his thoughts, it was then. He was worried.  
  
The Hokage smiled trying to lighten the mood. "Iruka you go home now with Kakashi and we will talk later tomorrow after a good nights rest." It was rather late.  
  
Iruka nodded, as his stomach growled causing him to blush.  
  
"And honestly Kakashi! Feed the boy!" Rei smiled as she vanished in a cloud of smoke.  
  
Kakashi grabbed Iruka's hand and dragged him out of the office as Iruka was saying his very formal goodbyes.  
  
Hiashi walked into the office after they left and gave the Hokage a very worried look.  
  
"I know Hiashi, I know."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Kakashi." Iruka looked up at the jounin who seemed to be staring at the sky.  
  
"Hn?" was all the noise he made.  
  
"Nothing." Iruka put his other hand around Kakashi's hand that was already holding one and leaned against his arm as he sighed. He wanted to know what Kakashi was thinking.  
  
Kakashi thought about what happened after he left Iruka with Rei and Saidaime.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Kakashi", it was a shadow clone of the Hokage.  
  
"Yes Hokage-sama"  
  
"I am going to place Iruka under your care."  
  
"Why me?"  
  
"Because you have known him longer than anyone and would be able to spot any changes in his behavior."  
  
"Changes?"  
  
"Yes, this seal I think he performed, it has many side effects. Major ones like going mad or suicidal, even extreme depression."  
  
"the minor?"  
  
"taking on characteristics of what they transformed into. Lucky for Iruka it was his younger self, but you and I both know what he was like when he was younger."  
  
"."  
  
"If you see any change in character for him, report it immediately to Hiashi, he will give me the message immediately no matter where I am."  
  
"Alright"  
  
"And please Kakashi don't get too worried, I will have Rei look for it, she will be able to find the cure."  
  
"And if not?"  
  
"."  
  
"I thought so"  
  
"We will have to keep it away from him then, a secret, and let him live his life as if everyday was the last."  
  
"And what about me."  
  
"."  
  
"You will find a cure no matter what Hokage-sama, not to seem rude, but I will not, no I could not, live without Iruka."  
  
"."  
  
"I am sorry if that seemed harsh."  
  
"I understand, now go to my office."  
  
And with that the clone had vanished.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Kakashi looked up to see that they had already arrived to Iruka's house.  
  
"You didn't want to stay at your house Kakashi?" Iruka looked up at him tired.  
  
"No, besides I am more comfortable at your house." He smiled at Iruka and walked in.  
  
"I will be right back, I just want to get some things." Kakashi winked and vanished.  
  
Iruka turned to the inside of his house. He was so tired. He walked into his room and saw his pants and vest.  
  
After he put them up, Iruka laid on his bed and slowly fell asleep.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Kakashi got back and he had a bag, he put it down beside the door or Iruka's bedroom.  
  
He walked over to the bed, Iruka was laying there, shivering because he had flung all the covers off of his bed in his sleep.  
  
Kakashi pulled his ponytail out so that he could sleep more comfortably. He pushed Iruka's hair behind his ears and chuckled at how cute he was.  
  
He pulled down his turtle-neck so that he could take in some fresh air, then he took off his vest and his hitai-ate leaf headband. He slowly crawled into the bed too, covering them both up as he took Iruka into his arms and kiss the back of his head. Iruka was a deep sleeper, even more so when he had a rough day.  
  
Kakashi sighed and he hugged the smaller form tightly. Would Iruka really survive this?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ END...for now  
  
Hey people.this is my first serious fanfic. Meaning I wasn't just fooling around writing random things about my fav characters lol ^_^;;;;  
  
Or least fav.*glares at Sasuke*  
  
So please R&R or you don't even have to read it! But Reviews are nice lol. Keep up! I will start on the next chap soon so c ya laitas  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"At a certain point have to trust the person and that is what love is."  
~Anonymous  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ 


	2. Meet Akuri

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"If you think you can, you can, if you think you can't, you're right." ~Mary Kay Ash  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Chapter Two: Meet Akuri  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Kakashi woke up and felt in front n him with his hands.  
  
"Iruka?!" Kakashi jumped up at the lack of mass.  
  
"I am in the kitchen!" He heard a boyish voice yell. He sighed in relief.  
  
He walked into the kitchen to see the young body making breakfast.  
  
"How long have you been up?" Kakashi looked at him a little worried, Iruka was known for not being a morning person, especially when he could sleep in.  
  
"Well, I woke up around eight and the I couldn't go back to sleep. So I decided to make breakfast, plus I am really hungry! No food last night remember?" Kakashi look at his clock, it was only around eight thirty. He sighed in relief again. And he was rather hungry as well.  
  
"Okay! Done!" Kakashi smiled at the sight of the happy young boy, he was so cute, it almost seemed like a dream. And he wished it was.  
  
He walked up behind the boy on his tippy-toes pouring eggs onto a plate. He got on his knees and hugged him.  
  
"Kakashi?" Iruka turned around, he still had his hair down and was wearing a pink apron with the words 'kiss the cook' on it.  
  
"Don't mind if I do." Kakashi smiled leaning in to kiss Iruka, who gladly accepted the token. Iruka put his scrawny arms around Kakashi's neck, and smiled.  
  
"This is.different." He blushed.  
  
"Well, no matter what size." Kakashi smiled, "you will always be the Uke."  
  
Iruka's face became bright red. He looked down so that he wouldn't have to look at the older man's eyes. "And you will always be the seme." his lips showing a small grin.  
  
This was the Iruka Kakashi knew and loved. Humble, modest, cute, and a very good cook. Kakashi smiled curving his eyes up.  
  
Iruka blushed again, turning around and began to continue what he was doing.  
  
"So when do you have to see Naruto and the others?" Iruka smiled putting two plates full of food on the table, as Kakashi sat down.  
  
"Um.lets see, I said eight so then I have at least another two hours to blow." He shuddered as he felt he was being given a very icy glare.  
  
"Eat quickly as you always do and then you will be a little more on time for them today!" Iruka looked at the jounin with a very annoyed face. It made it cute since he was so much younger.  
  
"Well are you going to come with me?" Kakashi looked up at his already clean plate at the very disturbed child, he had never seen Kakashi eat so fast before.  
  
"Um.Am I?" Iruka looked at himself, "I think that Naruto would recognize me at once."  
  
"We will just come up with a good disguise!" Kakashi smiled as he got up.  
  
"Hn? Where are you going?" Iruka started to get up.  
  
"I brought some cloths over for you last night, I remembered having some of my old cloths in my closet." Kakashi motioned for him to sit back down.  
  
"So that is what he went to get." Iruka smiled as he ate quickly so that they could leave.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Kakashi! Stop please!" Iruka had tears in his eyes.  
  
"But it is so fun!" Kakashi smirked.  
  
"Haha Haha! Puh-lease!!! HAHA! Stop!! Ouch!" Iruka tried to run away from the hands so vigorously tickling him.  
  
Iruka finally escaped as he fell on his face.  
  
"Ow!" he said with his face all red.  
  
"Well does it look okay or not? Kakashi-chan?" Iruka drew out the chan part, Kakashi hated that.  
  
"Yeah you would look good in anything!" Kakashi clapped at his fashion show he was getting, well before he attacked the model.  
  
Iruka was wearing a small black belly shirt that was also a tank top and a fishnet long sleeved undershirt. He had a pair of Kakashi's black pants, which came out very baggy on him. Why did Kakashi own this kind of shirt anyway?  
  
Iruka eyed Kakashi suspiciously until he felt a large hand ruffle his hair.  
  
"Keep your hair like this too!" Kakashi smiled.  
  
"What? No! People will think that I am a girl!" Iruka wined.  
  
"Maybe, but we don't want people recognizing you remember?" Kakashi smiled as he grabbed Iruka's hand.  
  
"Time to go if you just want to be an hour late!" He smiled curving his eyes.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Ugh!" Sakura was finally annoyed. "Why do we even come early?"  
  
It was actually very nice weather. It was a clear day and it had a nice breeze with its cool weather.  
  
Sasuke looked up down the street, was it just him or did he hear someone coming.  
  
Naruto moaned, "I hate waiting! This sucks!" he laid down on his back.  
  
A few minutes past, Sasuke still looking down the street. He could swear something strange was coming down the street. He had the same feeling that he had gotten during practice yesterday. It was as if something was wrong but whatever it was vanished before he could pinpoint the location. Now it was heading towards them.  
  
~Poof~  
  
Kakashi appeared on the bridge with Iruka in his arms, blushing wildly.  
  
"Sorry I am late, I had to pick up something."  
  
"Lie..rr?" Naruto and Sakura mumbled off in unison, was he telling the truth?  
  
"Kakashi you're early for being you!" Sakura exclaimed.  
  
"Hey! Who is the cute chick?" Naruto said eyeing Iruka.  
  
"Yeah, what did you tell her that you would give her candy if she followed you? Pervert!" Sakura yelled noticing the blush across Iruka's cheeks.  
  
"Urr.Um." Iruka paused, his own students didn't even recognize him! And they thought he was a girl!  
  
Kakashi snorted, he was trying so hard to keep his laughter in.  
  
"You know, you pretty girls shouldn't follow old perverted men around! You should know better!" Sakura bopped Iruka on the head.  
  
"I am a boy." Iruka said looking away, he was angry and embarrassed at the same time. If he weren't trying to hide his identity he would have been more out spoken.  
  
"WHAT!?!?!" Both Sakura and Naruto screamed at the same time in shock, as Sasuke looked like he was going to scream too.  
  
"I said I was a boy."  
  
All three students blushed at the same time, as Sasuke also choked.  
  
Kakashi couldn't hold it in anymore. He fell of the bridge laughing. "BAHAHAHA!"  
  
~Splash~  
  
Everyone looked at the man in the water, he had to be cold.  
  
"."  
  
"So now he is getting little boys! I knew he swung that way!" Sakura stuck her tongue out at submerged shinobi.  
  
"but really! Why are you with a pervert like that! He even keeps his ugly face covered up!.I bet he looks horrific!" Naruto pointed at the shinobi smiling at his students, who didn't try to help him out of the water!  
  
"actually he his very cute!" Iruka giggled to him-self hoping no one heard.  
  
Sasuke choked again, "When did you see his face!" He jumped up yelling, scaring the other two.  
  
Quickly a pair of hands covered Iruka's mouth. "Never" smiled Kakashi.  
  
"No one ever sees my face and lives to tell about it!" He said sternly yet winking at Iruka.  
  
"Ack! Get off him pervert!" Sakura pushed Kakashi off of Iruka.  
  
"Really dude, don't let him touch you!" Sakura shook her finger.  
  
"Hey! How do you guys know each other really?" Naruto looked at Kakashi who was on the ground smiling as he sat up.  
  
"He is Iruka's neighbor's second cousin's aunt's great niece's brother's youngest daughter's grandma's neighbor's second cousin's love child." Kakashi smiled.  
  
"Kakashi has a love child!" Sakura and Naruto gasped causing Sasuke to fall over.  
  
Kakashi looked at them, did they only hear the last two words? Beside the fact that he was only three years older than the young chunnin, but if he were twelve then Kakashi would have had to found a chick when he was fifteen, which never happened.  
  
"How many more do you have? Pervert!? Why are you taking him places? Was it a deal if you hung out with him that the mother wouldn't mention anything!?" Sakura loved to create scandals.  
  
Iruka blushed, Kakashi's love child? No his lover yes, but love child? No.  
  
"So why exactly is he here?" Sasuke just stared at Iruka. These students ask a lot of question don't they.  
  
"He is keeping an eye on Iruka's house while he is on a mission!" Kakashi thought that would be a good excuse just in case Naruto came over.  
  
"Iruka-sensei!? He went on a mission! When? He didn't tell me anything!" Naruto looked a bit hurt causing Iruka's heart to burst.  
  
"It is really top secret and don't tell anyone. We don't know how long he will be gone and did I tell you not to tell anyone?" Kakashi glared at his students.  
  
Naruto looked a bit disappointed but quickly brightened up.  
  
"So where are you from pretty boy?" He smiled.  
  
"If he says anything, he will have to kill you!" Kakashi shouted almost giving the young ninja a heart attack.  
  
Iruka was getting frustrated with Kakashi answering his questions, he was not helping. He turned around and gave Kakashi his 'you are a horrible student and apologize now' look. It was a look that even struck fear in the grown men around the village.  
  
Kakashi gasped. He drooped his head and sat down in the middle of the bridge. "Why don't you guys ask him yourself." He muttered, he hated getting 'the look'.  
  
"What is your name?" Sakura smiled.  
  
"Iru..uh I mean Akuri!" Iruka caught himself quickly.  
  
"Isn't that a type of food." Naruto looked at him blankly.  
  
"Um.no that is curry." Iruka rolled his eyes at Naruto catching the fact that Sasuke was still staring at him.  
  
"Oh Akuri-kun! You are so cute! Even more than Sasu.." Sakura caught herself as she put her hand over her mouth and blushed. Sasuke looked up intrigued.  
  
"Oh I didn't mean that Sasuke! Heehee" Sakura laughed nervously.  
  
"Okay time to train already! I showed up early darn it!" Kakashi was getting a little annoyed, he could be reading his book, that Iruka had confiscated before they left, or better yet, if they hadn't, he could be making out with the chunnin now.  
  
His thoughts stopped.  
  
Iruka was a little boy now. What was going to happen to them? To their relationship? What if they never found a cure? Worry began to take over the jounin.  
  
"Kakashi? Kakashi!" Naruto yelled waving his hand in front of his teacher's face.  
  
"Hn" he looked at him nonchalantly.  
  
"Training? Remember?" Sakura looked at her sensei confused. He looked around and then noticed Iruka's face, he looked worried.  
  
"Oh yeah! Hehe! " The jounin smiled under his mask.  
  
"Come on!" He started walking to their training ground.  
  
Sakura grabbed Iruka's arm and pulled him along. All three of the guys grunted, but continued.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka watched with his eyes wide. This is what they called training?! He couldn't believe it! Sakura was sitting beside him smiling and blushing, creeping him out. Naruto and Sasuke were at each other's throats with kunais and Kakashi sat and laughed, every once and a while checking on the chunnin and his new admirer.  
  
Why do girls do that? Iruka thought to himself, getting annoyed at the glances he was getting. 'yuck'.  
  
Iruka stopped, did he just think yuck? Yuck! What on earth! He was sounding like a little kid!  
  
Iruka shook his head.  
  
"Akuri-kun!" He looked up to see Naruto sit beside him. Huh? What about Sasuke? He looked over to see the boy attacking Kakashi, obviously mad about something.  
  
"Hey Naruto.kun?" Iruka felt weird calling him that.  
  
"Guys! Stop it already!" Sakura got up and started yelling at her sensei and Sasuke.  
  
"Hey Akuri-kun!" Naruto leaned over to Iruka.  
  
"What?" Iruka looked over smiling, not seeing the blush form on the blonde's cheeks.  
  
"Have we met before? You just seem so familiar." Naruto gave his foxy smile.  
  
"No sorry I don't think so." Iruka looked down. If there was anything in the world he hated doing, it was lying to Naruto, which he had already done so many times today.  
  
"Oh, sorry! I just thought that maybe you were at that New Year's party Iruka's landlady held."  
  
Iruka smiled, he remembered that day like it was yesterday, all the fun and games, and Naruto. Everyone there had thought that Naruto was his son, or little brother, which took him by surprise since they didn't look alike, and well the fact that he would have had to of been eleven when Naruto was born.  
  
"No sorry, this is his first time here Naruto." Kakashi smiled as a roughed up Sasuke pounced on him from behind, revealing that it was a shadow clone.  
  
Iruka laughed, it seemed like so much fun. He looked down, believe it or not he wanted to leave this form so that he could teach again. So he could see the smiles on everyone's faces, so that he could be there for them, and just so that he could have fun with them.  
  
"Akuri-kun." Iruka looked up and this time Naruto was in front of him on his knees.  
  
"Yes? Naruto-kun." He wanted to laugh, he was calling Naruto Kun!  
  
"Why do you wear a bandage across your face? I bet you could get a lot more chicks if you took it off" Naruto gave him another fox smile.  
  
Iruka looked up. He remembered Kakashi putting it across his face right before they left, it was to hide his scar.  
  
"Well you see Naruto," Kakashi was in the tree above them with Sasuke, tied to the branch he was on. Sasuke was obviously very happy to finally catch the jounin, "An evil raccoon attacked him and if you pull off the band-aide his face will melt off!"  
  
Naruto looked at Iruka puzzled, did he really believe Kakashi? Hehe, what a dobe.  
  
Iruka's eyes went wide, first yuck and now dobe? What was he? five?  
  
"Okay lunch break!" Kakashi walked up to the group, who then looked up to see Sasuke now tied up.  
  
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto jumped up to untie the stuck child.  
  
What? Why is Naruto helping him? Its not like it is going to hurt him to be tied! Why are they both blushing? Naruto?  
  
"Oh gawd!" Iruka looked at Kakashi who just curved his one visible eye.  
  
"That is what happens when you spend to much time together," he chuckled, "Come on Iru.I mean Akuri you should know."  
  
Sakura looked confused but smiled as she saw Sasuke land right beside her, blushing, but Iruka didn't think she really noticed that.  
  
"He is too young to know he leans that way." Iruka mumbled crossing his arms. Giving Kakashi his pouty face, causing the man to blush under his mask. If Iruka ever realized just how cute he was, he could probably rule the world, or at least the entire female and half of the male populations.  
  
"Hey Akuri! Have you ever had ramen?!!" Naruto ran to the smaller boy, there was something about him that he enjoyed to be around. It reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place whom.  
  
"yes." Iruka was getting prepared to be asked to buy the boy some.  
  
"Well if you like it I could get you some! It is our lunch break! And I know the best place!" Naruto's face was beaming nothing but joy.  
  
Iruka's mouth dropped, what?! Did he hear Naruto offer to buy him ramen? Oh wait he wasn't Iruka, he was now Akuri. He heard a grunt come form Sasuke. What was he upset about?  
  
"um.sure!" Iruka smiled looking at Kakashi asking if it was all right  
  
"Yes you may go Akuri-sensei I mean Kun, I have to go see someone real quick." Kakashi smiled as he waved a vanished. But was it really all right for him to leave Iruka there by himself in his condition? He smiled if anything weird was going to happen he knew one of his students would find him.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Isn't this place beautiful?" Naruto gleamed with what seemed like tears in his eyes.  
  
"uh.sure." Iruka looked at Sasuke who had put himself in between Iruka and Naruto. What was his problem? He was really getting on Iruka's nerves.  
  
"Come on Akuri!!!!!!!" Naruto was waving him to sit beside the excited boy. Sasuke seemed upset that he couldn't really get between that without leaving his seat already on the other side of Naruto.  
  
After a few minutes, they ordered and Sasuke and Naruto starting arguing over some time when Naruto had fallen into the lake and whose fault it was. He wasn't really listening, then he noticed someone wasn't there.  
  
"Hey guys? Where is Sakura.um.chan?" Iruka stopped their conversation, which almost had them at each other's throats.  
  
"Oh! She usually eats at home or with her other friends." Naruto smiled.  
  
Iruka smiled as he caught Sasuke looking at him again, with that stupid blank face! What on earth is he looking at? Take a picture it lasts longer!  
  
Iruka put his hand over his mouth, what was he thinking? That was Sasuke, his best student! Why was he getting angry with him? What was Sasuke doing anyway? Staring at him?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Oh my gawd!!!!!!!!!" Sasuke who is that beautiful girl next to you?  
  
It was the waitress, who seemed to be ignoring Naruto's presence right there, which was starting to get on Iruka's nerves.  
  
Sasuke just seemed to smirk at Iruka being called a girl again, not that he couldn't blame the lady, he was very. beautiful. Sasuke shook his head. He looked at Iruka again, the boy seemed to have a very agitated face, but why? Was he finally going to lose it over being called a girl so many times today?  
  
"For one!" Iruka stood up in front of his stool. "I am a boy, and two, Do you not see Naruto-kun right here?!" he had anger in his voice, scaring Naruto, Sasuke, and the waitress.  
  
"Oh.oh I am so sorry! I didn't mean to make you upset sir!" the waitress bowed her head, she seemed disappointed for making such a cute child mad at her. "And I am also sorry Naruto-kun, I didn't mean to be rude." And with that she quickly left.  
  
The two boys sat in awe of their new friend sitting himself down again. Naruto blushed, he didn't really care but that was rather nice. Sasuke's face started to have a hint of red, the pretty boy had a temper, and when he was angry he was so much more. attractive.  
  
Iruka looked up at their expressions. Oops! I lost it! Oh crap! That has never happened before! Why now?  
  
"I.I am so sorry!" Iruka blushed getting up to leave.  
  
~Bump~  
  
"Oh my! I am so sorry little girl!"  
  
Iruka looked up, it was Ino. Was it just him or did he hate the fact that he was shorter than all his past students, though barely shorter that Naruto.  
  
"No Ino! That is the boy I was telling you about!" It was Sakura smiling at Iruka.  
  
"Right Akuri? Aren't you the cutest little boy" She dragged out the last word.  
  
"Wow! How old are you? You are so cute!" Ino got this weird smile, which seemed to make Sasuke nervous, was there something Iruka was missing?  
  
"um.twenty.I mean twelve." Iruka caught himself.  
  
A strange look appeared in Ino's and Sakura's eyes. Uh oh, a feeling of fear came over him.  
  
"Wow! You are twelve! I thought you were like six or eight!" Naruto exclaimed smiling, not noticing Sasuke get out of his chair. "You are only a year younger than us!"  
  
Then a hand came from behind Iruka and grabbed one of his hands and start running.  
  
"What?!" he looked up and saw that it was Sasuke running, he seemed to be annoyed. Iruka looked back where he was and there was now a group of girls talking to Ino. "What is going on?" Iruka wanted it to be explained.  
  
"Get them ladies!"  
  
Iruka looked down to see the crowd of girls now chasing them.  
  
"You have no idea, meeting that girl is like signing a death sentence to your life!" Sasuke pulled around a corner and jumped on the roof, pushing Iruka down so that they could be hidden.  
  
"What do you mean?" Iruka didn't like the feeling of Sasuke over his body like that, it was very strange feeling.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Kakashi landed in the Hokage's office.  
  
"Hmmm. Kakashi what is it? I am about to leave to join Rei." Saidaime turned around.  
  
"Oh I wanted to ask you something before you leave."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Do you remember anything about Iruka when he was younger, like now? I cant really put it together, it was after the incident so I was on a lot of missions then."  
  
"Hmmm." Hokage closed his eyes. "Yes, it was around then that he was such the trouble maker but you knew that."  
  
"yeah, anything else?"  
  
"Hmmm," the Hokage smiled, "It was also around then that he hit that age."  
  
Kakashi looked up at the Hokage. "Really?"  
  
"Yes, you should know, all the raging hormones, and stuff like that. Iruka was slow to sprout but not when it came to, well puberty." The Hokage laughed remembering some moments of the child's life.  
  
"Oh ok is that all?"  
  
"No, don't and I mean do not! Give that boy candy! He may have been able to handle it when he was older, but he was something to be feared with sugar in his veins." Hokage smiled again thinking of one of his ruined birthday parties.  
  
"Candy? Really?"  
  
"Yes, now if you don't mind."  
  
Kakashi left.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"They even try to break into your house?!" Iruka was in shock! His female students being all crazy over a boy, they went to extreme measures.  
  
"That shouldn't be allowed! Why haven't you told anyone?" Iruka was still surprised as he began to whisper at the sight of one of the girls going through the ally looking for them, "its just not right!".  
  
Sasuke sighed, "Every one knows.it is like a way of life here." Sasuke noticed the shocked face on the boy, it was cute.  
  
Iruka looked down, he knew that the girls liked the boy but that was it, except for the few quarrels he got every once in a while, a feeling that he had failed on of his students came over him.  
  
"Why do you look so mad at yourself its not like it's your fault. I mean we just met today!" Sasuke mumbled in a compassionate tone letting a blush come to his face.  
  
"I FOUND THEM!!!!!!"  
  
The two boys turned around. It was a fan girl. Sasuke jumped up and then onto the ground being followed by Iruka.  
  
"Akuri! You run that way and I will run this way! Okay! go!" Sasuke started sprinting in the direction he said. Iruka could not believe Sasuke went through this as many times as he had.  
  
A sudden chill came across his back as he turned around and saw the girls splitting into groups for the hunt, or chase.  
  
Iruka ran faster than he had ever in his life, he began to become thankful for his new speed, though if he were older again he wouldn't be going through this right now.  
  
Two arms came out a pulled him to the side. He saw some smoke and then felt some lips against his. They were wet and warm, his heart started pounding.  
  
"MM?!?!?!" his eyes went wide. He tried to struggle.  
  
The girls ran past, some stopping and blushing but then they would continue, what was going on?  
  
After a few seconds all the girls had past. Yes, seconds.  
  
The lips lifted off of his, and some smoke seem to appear over him again.  
  
He looked up as he put his hand on his mouth. It was Sasuke?!?!! Iruka got angry, only one man was allowed to kiss him and Sasuke certainly wasn't tall, silver haired or Kakashi!  
  
"WHAT THE.!!" Sasuke put his hand over Iruka's mouth, both of them blushing wildly.  
  
"I had to do it okay!" Sasuke looked down on the ground. "If I hadn't they would have already caught you by now. They had an ambush planned a few buildings up ahead. So in other words if I hadn't of come and put up the stupid illusion you would be a goner alright!"  
  
Iruka couldn't think of a protest, all he heard was 'ambush'. The thought of being caught made him shudder.  
  
"And if I could have put an illusion up with out having to touch you I would have but.. I am not as good as that bastard Kakashi yet, or Sakura for that matter." Sasuke looked down, he was uncomfortable. "Don't tell Naruto please?"  
  
Wait a sec? If all he needed was touch then why kiss? And did he just admit he wasn't good at Justus?? And did he just call Kakashi a bastard? Did he ask me not to tell Naruto? Iruka looked at him angrily, he wanted answers.  
  
Iruka felt a sudden pain in his heart.  
  
~Ba Bump~  
  
He put his hand on his chest.  
  
~Ba Bump~  
  
"Agh!" He leaned over scaring Sasuke.  
  
~Ba Bump~  
  
"No!" The pain was over whelming.  
  
~Ba Bump~  
  
Tears began to come up in his eyes as he leaned himself against the building for support.  
  
~Ba Bump~  
  
He slid down trying to breath, it hurt, but it was too hard to breath.  
  
"Akuri?!" It was Sasuke with a worried look in his eyes.  
  
~Ba Bump~  
  
It was funny, Iruka had seen more emotions in Sasuke's face that day, than he ever had when he had taught him, was it because of Naruto?  
  
~Ba Bump~  
  
"Kakashi..." Iruka couldn't see anything, his vision became blurred.  
  
~Ba Bump~  
  
Everything went black.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^dream  
  
"Iruka" it seemed to be a familiar voice.  
  
"Iruka" it was so calm.  
  
Iruka opened his eyes, it was Naruto. He smiled then noticed Sasuke beside him.  
  
"Iruka, I have something to tell you." Naruto looked down blushing grabbing Sasuke's hand.  
  
Iruka's smiled fell, he had a bad feeling. He sat up.  
  
"I love Sasuke-kun. And he loves me too!" Naruto gleamed happily.  
  
Iruka's mouth dropped. "You are too young to know that!"  
  
"Aw.but Iruka when was it that you admitted you loved me?" Kakashi appeared right beside him.  
  
Iruka looked down and blushed. He was actually a year younger than Naruto, but that was different! Right?  
  
"You were twelve right?" Kakashi smiled.  
  
The room started spinning, "What?" Iruka looked around, he felt his whole body shrink, he was twelve again?!?! But why?  
  
Iruka looked up and saw Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and a crowd of girls behind her.  
  
"Akuri-kun you are so pretty!" Naruto smiled.  
  
"I love you Akuri-kun!" Sakura and the group of girls yelled.  
  
"Akuri-kun, I love you too." mumbled Sasuke.  
  
Iruka was confused, what was going on?! The room started spinning, everyone but Kakashi disappeared. His love. What if Kakashi finds someone else? Someone not so small?  
  
A feeling of pain came over him. No Kakashi wouldn't do that, right?  
  
"Iruka." He looked up to see Kakashi smiling at him. But the room started spinning again causing the figure to blur.  
  
"Iruka."  
  
"Kakashi! Don't go yet!" Iruka cried.  
  
"Iruka.wake up please." It was Kakashi's voice but it seemed worried.  
  
"Iruka.please."  
  
"Kakashi!" Iruka screamed trying to find the man in all the darkness.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ end  
  
"Kakashi!" Iruka sat up. He was sweaty and breathing heavily. Two hands grabbed his shoulders.  
  
"Hn?" He jumped as the cold hands tried to push him back down.  
  
"Its okay Iruka lay back down please." It was Saidaime, he looked worried. Iruka looked around the room and saw Hiashi talking to someone in front of him.  
  
"Where is..?" Iruka looked at the Hokage with scared eyes.  
  
"Look at the foot of your bed." Saidaime sighed letting go of Iruka.  
  
Iruka turned his head to look at his bed. Kakashi was leaning against it, sleeping. His face looked worried but peaceful at the same time. Iruka smiled at the sight he was glad, Kakashi was there, there for him.  
  
"Hokage-sama." Iruka turned back to the older man, who lifted his eyebrow. "What happened? Why exactly am I here?" Iruka looked at him puzzled, all he remembered was sharp pains in his sides then darkness. He wanted to know exactly what was going on.  
  
"Iruka do you remember anything?" Hiashi came over now.  
  
"Yes, I remember feeling really angry and confused, and the a sharp pain came like it was attacking my heart or something." Iruka looked at Hiashi and smiled, he didn't want to frown, and the mood in the room was already pretty dim.  
  
"Iruka, you see, I think your body still hasn't gotten used to its new form yet." Hokage started. "Did you do anything that may have used a lot of energy?"  
  
Iruka thought for a second, "Yes, I ran away from a flock of my old and new students!"  
  
Both Hiashi and Hokage looked at him puzzled. "Why were they chasing you Iruka?" Hokage grinned.  
  
"Well lets see, Sasuke grabbed me and started running, said something about fan-girls and how the are obsessed with cute." Iruka stopped and blushed, ".boys." he smirked when he saw Hiashi and Hokage do the same thing.  
  
Saidaime coughed and then smiled, "I see.yes the girls have gotten a little more crazy about love than their ninjitsus these days."  
  
"Iruka if you don't mind, I have to go catch up to Rei now." The Hokage looked at Iruka who nodded. Saidaime vanished.  
  
"Alright Iruka, no more craziness. In your condition you shouldn't strain your body. It might even shorten your time." Hiashi looked at Iruka with a serious face. "Have you had any other symptoms lately?"  
  
Iruka shook his head, then looked up. "Actually, it seems I have gotten my old temper back. And I also seem to get rather childish, in my mind anyway." Iruka grinned, "I started thinking words like dobe and yuck."  
  
Hiashi looked at him and smiled. He wasn't going to tell Iruka those were side effects. For some reason he felt that he shouldn't, not until the symptoms get worse.  
  
"Iruka you and Kakashi-sensei may stay here tonight, which by the way is in the Hokage's quarters." Hiashi smiled leaving and shutting the door behind him.  
  
Iruka looked around, he was really in the Hokage's room, and he was in his bed too. He smiled, Kakashi was still sleeping at the foot of the bed.  
  
"Iruka." Kakashi mumbled moving his hand a little.  
  
Iruka looked up. Was he having a bad dream? About him? He got up and walked over to the slumbering jounin.  
  
Oh how he wished he could just pick up the man and put him in the bed with him, with out waking him up. But he was too small.  
  
Small.  
  
Weak.  
  
Iruka looked at his hands they were so small. It was the first time in a long while that Iruka hated himself.  
  
"Hn? Iruka?" Kakashi opened his one eye and looked to the spot that Iruka was sitting. He was about to jump up at the sight of no one there when he felt a small hand grab his.  
  
"I am right here Kakashi." Iruka smiled, trying to hide the thoughts he had, he wanted to cry.  
  
Kakashi sighed and stood up. "So where is the old man?"  
  
"Its Hokage-sama and he left a few minutes ago. As did Hiashi after him." Iruka crawled back on the bed, he still had the same outfit on.  
  
"Would you like to go back to your house?" Kakashi sat beside the chunnin sensing something was upsetting him.  
  
"Actually, yeah.is that okay with you?" Iruka leaned on the jounin's arm.  
  
"Yeah, we are in the old man's house, it kind'a of gives me a creepy feeling." Kakashi smiled trying to lighten up the mood. He wrapped his arm around the smaller form and they vanished. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^fin  
  
Hey guys sorry I had to cut it off! It was getting long! Lol not that it matters or anything but I have to go to school you know!. I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to Review! Oh and replies to reviews are at the bottom! *points to bottom of story* see?  
  
I hope every one has a good day!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Next Chapter 3! Kakashi and Iruka start talking about things that they have avoided to mention to each other! Iruka gets invited to a party where, well lets just say, there is a large supply of candy. Sasuke confronts Iruka alone and wants to know what happened, and lets just say Sasuke shares a lot too. Will Kakashi be able to save his love from the party? And why is Lee there? Who invited him? Why is he following Iruka around? Will Iruka be able to survive another training session?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ Replies to Reviews!!!  
  
Iruka's lover : um.please don't hunt me down. ^_^;;;; (Why does that always happen to me?)  
  
And everyone else! Thanx!!!! 


	3. Unexpected Happenings

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"To achieve great things we must live as though we were never going to die"  
~Marquis de Vauvenargues  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Chapter three: Unexpected Happenings  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
~Poof~  
  
Iruka landed on his bed.  
  
"Hey, um.do you mind if I borrow a pair of your pajamas?" Kakashi didn't want to make Iruka uncomfortable but he could not wear his outfit to bed again, it needed to be washed.  
  
"Yeah sure!" Iruka pointed to his closet so that the jounin could choose one for him-self. Iruka smiled, the thought of Kakashi wearing a pair of his pajamas made his heart beat faster.  
  
But why? Kakashi has borrowed several pairs of pajamas before. He probably even had some of Iruka's pajamas at his house, the man always found himself shopping for pajamas. So why was this time so different?  
  
Iruka looked at the jounin in his closet. He smiled, it didn't matter. It reminded him of how much he really cared about the man, and hoped that it was returned.  
  
"I'll draw you a bath!" Iruka figured Kakashi would want a bath before he put on another pair of cloths.  
  
He ran into the bathroom and turned on the tub. Then he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked up, it was still too high. He got up on top of his toilet seat and then slowly crawled onto the counter.  
  
Iruka sighed, it was the second time he actually looked at himself in the mirror since he transformed. His eyes seemed to be filled with nothing but pain and sorrow. Why did they look that way? His skin seemed to have gotten a few shades lighter, even though he had spent most of the day outside.  
  
He looked so tiny and weak. His arms started trembling, he didn't want to look that way anymore. He looked down, he never wanted to look in the mirror again, it made him feel sick. He didn't even notice the tall figure appear in the background.  
  
"Iruka.." Kakashi looked at him crawling off the counter.  
  
"Oh! Hey Kakashi!" Iruka smiled trying to cover the pain in his eyes, "The bath is almost ready. Have you had dinner yet? I can always make something, I am actually really hungry." Iruka looked down and prayed that the jounin didn't see him look at himself in the mirror.  
  
Kakashi looked down on Iruka, all the questions he wanted to ask, all the answers he believed he needed. He walked over and pulled the young figure into a hug, and didn't let go.  
  
Iruka smiled as he leaned his head on the jounin's shoulder. This is what he needed right now.  
  
"Thank you Kakashi......" Iruka freed one of his hands and pulled it around Kakashi's neck.  
  
Then his face got red. Huh? Iruka blinked, his heartbeat getting faster. He felt butterflies in his stomach as his body realized how close they were. But why does this happen? They used to get this close, if not closer (^_~) before.  
  
Kakashi felt the smaller form start to shiver; of course he thought it was because Iruka may have been cold not because he was nervous.  
  
"Hey Iruka...."  
  
Iruka slipped and hit the floor, except a hand quickly caught his head. He looked up, Kakashi was just laughing at the clumsy-ness of the little boy. Kakashi over him like that reminded him of something. He noticed Kakashi still had on his uniform and his facemask was still on.  
  
Iruka lifted up his hands and gently grabbed the mouth cover. Kakashi looked at him and smiled. Iruka slowly pulled it down and blushed. It wasn't because of the sight; it was because of the memory.  
  
"Kakashi doesn't this remind you of the time you stole my first kiss." Iruka looked up at him smiling.  
  
"Aw...I did steal your first kiss but I think that was the second one." Kakashi grinned remembering the moment on his bed.  
  
"You did say you would do anything to see my face." Kakashi lifted his hitai-ate leaf band.  
  
"Yeah, well its only because Gai told me that it was mangled by a horrible accident you were in." Iruka looked up at him pouty.  
  
"Hey now, don't tell me your upset because I wasn't ugly."  
  
"It was a little disappointing." Iruka smiled. Then a warm feeling liquid came down Iruka's back.  
  
"Ah!" Iruka jumped up bumping into Kakashi making the man land on his back.  
  
Iruka looked at the warm water flowing over the side of the tub.  
  
"Ah! The bath!" Iruka ran over to turn off the faucet. He stretched his arm over and could barely reach it. His whole side getting wet, he reached even farther turning off the faucet but he lost his balance.  
  
Iruka fell in.  
  
"Hauh!" Iruka splashed up gasping for air at the unwanted surprise.  
  
"Haha!" Iruka felt two cold hands go around his body and lift off his shirt.  
  
"I knew you wanted to take the first bath! But honestly Iruka you didn't have to go in with your cloths still on." Kakashi smiled as he dropped the wet shirt onto the floor.  
  
"Ack! You're making a mess!" Iruka jumped up so he could get out and clean everything, but was pulled back and pulled back in the water.  
  
"Now, now Iruka-chan first we must clean you up!" Kakashi smiled as he pulled up his shirt's sleeves and knelt beside the tub.  
  
"What do you mean we?" Iruka looked at Kakashi sternly but with his face blushing brightly.  
  
"Oh come on! Please!" Kakashi gave Iruka hurt eyes. "Besides its not like any of my students will let me do this to them, though I almost caught Sasuke off guard once!" Kakashi smirked.  
  
"I am going to completely ignore that last statement by you Hatake Kakashi! And no you may not, I think that I can bathe myself thank you." Iruka let himself sink into the tub so that the water was at his nose as he stared at the now moping, but leaving jounin.  
  
Iruka had finally finished washing his hair and was about to move to his back when it hit him. His arms were too short.  
  
"Crap." He blushed as he looked around, maybe one of Naruto's toys were around. The one with a long handle and a brush at the end would be very handy.  
  
He sighed, he had told Naruto to take them back home because he had tipped over one of them in the shower.  
  
"Why me!" He shouted as he fell back into the tub letting it take over his whole body.  
  
'Maybe if I just sit here in the water it will clean my back for me...' the submerged boy thought to himself.  
  
'Ugh! It's still no good! I wont be clean!' Iruka started to hate the fact he was such a neat and clean person.  
  
He sat up and looked around, as he began to blush. He didn't want to ask, but he was going to have to.  
  
Iruka sighed as his face became a shade of crimson.  
  
"Kakashi? Can you come here for a sec.....?" Iruka slowly mumbled off as the door swung open.  
  
"The fun has arrived!" Kakashi smiled as Iruka just looked at him in shock.  
  
Surprisingly, Kakashi was still in his cloths. He brought a bucket of bath supplies with him too.  
  
Iruka blushed and sank into the tub once more. How embarrassing! He was a grown man! Well not so much right then but still he really was! And now he needed help to wash his back.  
  
Kakashi kneeled over the side of the tub and grinned.  
  
"So do you need help in the front or back?" Kakashi smiled not flinching once.  
  
"Back...please..." Iruka sat up and faced front, he did not want Kakashi to see the color of his face right then.  
  
After a while of washing, and tickling Iruka felt that he was clean enough, or he had, had enough of the jounin's hyper fingers.  
  
"Thank you Kakashi." Iruka looked up at him motioning him to leave.  
  
Kakashi sighed, he was having too much fun, but he still got up. The Kakashi's foot slipped on some water still on the ground and lost his balance.  
  
Iruka looked up as an idea zoomed in his head. He quickly jumped up pulled the jounin into the tub on his back, causing a big splash as he jumped out and wrapped a towel around himself before Kakashi could even notice what had happened.  
  
Iruka grinned mischievously at the now soaked jounin who seemed still trying to figure out what exactly went wrong.  
  
Iruka walked over and kneeled over the side of the tub putting his hands on Kakashi's right leg that was still over the tub.  
  
"So, front or back?" Iruka tried to hold back the laugh.  
  
Kakashi looked at the little chunnin in shock. Iruka had gotten him wet.  
  
"Okay Iruka I know my cloths were dirty but geez! You could have waited until I took them off first!" Kakashi smiled at his own joke.  
  
"But I still need to wash that dirty mind of yours too." Iruka pushed Kakashi's one dry leg into the tub and smiled.  
  
"Too shay. Iruka my boy I mean friend, I mean very very good friend with many benefits! You are getting quicker!" Kakashi smiled, it was rare that Iruka had ever gotten a joke on him, if even ever a good one.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka looked around his kitchen, his appetite seemed to have had grown in the past couple of days, but he would never admit the reason to himself.  
  
He still never wanted to accept it.  
  
He changed.  
  
He was stuck in a new form.  
  
He was small and weak.  
  
His mind was slowly breaking, reality was changing, and the chunnin was in the middle of the abyss.  
  
He could only rely on others.  
  
Not himself.  
  
It was slowly driving Iruka mad.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Hungry again Iruka?" Kakashi laughed as he saw the younger form climb on top of the counters to reach the shelves.  
  
Iruka looked up and smiled. "Guess you could say I got the munchies!"  
  
Iruka quickly piled the food into a bowl and shoved it into the oven to cook.  
  
He had two pieces of bread, left over ramen (yes left over from Naruto), a few pickles, some slices of ham, cheese, left over rice, and some marshmallows all inside the bowl. For some all reason he thought that all of that together seemed rather delicious.  
  
"If you don't get sick, I will watching you eat that." Kakashi hadn't lifted his eyes from his favorite book, which he had found Iruka had hid it under his mattress.  
  
"I cannot believe you actually searched my house for that nasty book." Iruka stuck his tongue out but quickly put it back when he realized what he did.  
  
"I can't believe you actually took it from me this morning." Kakashi lifted his eye.  
  
~Ding~  
  
"OOOOOO!!!! It's done!" Iruka jumped up happily as he pulled it out.  
  
One large pile of blob in a bowl.  
  
"I think I am going to be sick." Kakashi looked back down and continued reading.  
  
"Besides! (Iruka changing the subject back) I took it away from you and you still didn't help!" Iruka put a whole splotch-full into his mouth.  
  
"Help you from what?" Kakashi tried to ignore the smell of Iruka's 'snack'.  
  
"Getting Sakura-chan to stop making goofy faces at me!" Iruka blushed.  
  
"I mean Haruno-san, you know it is really strange to get those kind of faces made at me. And even more so from boy-crazed students." Iruka ate some more.  
  
"Please tell me your going to brush your teeth again tonight right?" Kakashi looked up at Iruka hopefully.  
  
Iruka looked up.  
  
"Why? Don't want a good night kiss Kakashi?" Iruka smiled, with a mouth full of glop.  
  
"Yeah I want one, just after all that junk gets out of your system." Kakashi started walking to the room.  
  
"I can't take anymore of watching you eat that. I am signing out." Kakashi waved behind himself.  
  
Iruka just looked at Kakashi and then his pile of food. What was his problem? It is perfectly edible.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka finished brushing his teeth for the third time straight. He wanted to make sure his teeth wouldn't go bad and plus the fact that Kakashi would probably kill him while he was sleeping if his breath stank.  
  
Iruka peeked into his room and saw Kakashi using the moonlight to read.  
  
It was a beautiful sight. It made his hair glow a silver color and his skin seem so smooth and pale. He had chosen a pair of Iruka's blue pajamas, which was the perfect color for him. Ironically they were also his only pair of turtleneck ones, so he could hide his face if he felt like it.  
  
Iruka smiled as his hair fell in his face. It was still a little damp from the bath. He was starting to get used to it in his face all the time, and the little feelings he got when it brushed his back. He had never worn his hair down for so long.  
  
"Ow!"  
  
Iruka looked up to see Kakashi looking at his finger. He quickly ran over and jumped on the bed crawling over to Kakashi.  
  
Kakashi looked up and smiled at the very over reacted facial expressions of his friend. It was just a paper cut.  
  
Iruka grabbed his hand and put the tip of his finger in his mouth, startling the jounin.  
  
They just stared at each other for a moment.  
  
"Uh...Um..." Iruka blushed as he slowly turned his head pulling Kakashi's hand away.  
  
Then Kakashi's hand lifted up and slowly caressed Iruka's check before pulling his head forward into a kiss.  
  
"You sure are seductive you know that." Kakashi smiled pulling out of the kiss.  
  
Iruka's heart was pounding. He lifted his arms around Kakashi's neck and leaned in to kiss the older man, this time letting his tongue slide in.  
  
Kakashi wrapped his arms around the smaller body and quickly pulled him under so that Iruka's back was against the bed and Kakashi was above him.  
  
Kakashi leaned over and kissed Iruka's forehead and then back to his lips.  
  
"Oh and by the way...thanks for brushing your teeth." Kakashi kissed him one more time before lying down beside him.  
  
Iruka's face was crimson red, his heart was beating so fast, and he could still feel Kakashi's warm body over his. He smiled as he leaned to his side and pulled himself into Kakashi's chest.  
  
"Your welcome"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka opened his eyes.  
  
It was pitch black outside. It was pouring down rain as it would lightning every once and a while.  
  
Iruka looked up and noticed his window was open, good thing the wind was keeping the rain from coming into his house.  
  
Iruka sighed as he pushed Kakashi's hand off slowly to not wake up the jounin. When he saw something move outside.  
  
"Hn?" He looked up tiredly at his window and saw nothing.  
  
"Hmmmmm." Kakashi seemed to be enjoying something in his dream as he began to smile a little.  
  
Iruka smiled at the cute sight as he leaned over and kiss the man on the forehead, he couldn't help it, it was just too cute.  
  
He noticed some movement outside of his window again.  
  
Iruka crawled over the larger body to get to the window. He looked around and didn't see anything.  
  
Iruka sighed as he shut the window, he wanted something exciting to happen, maybe something that could wake up the whole village.  
  
Then he noticed it. It was a small body that seemed to be walking away from his house. He recognized the symbol on the back of the jacket.  
  
"Sasuke?" Iruka jumped off the bed and ran through the house and through the door, silently so that he wouldn't wake up the sleeping beauty.  
  
The rain had lightened up a little as the lightning slowed down. Iruka looked to where Sasuke was walking.  
  
"Sasuke?" Iruka yelled causing the body to look back and then start running away.  
  
"Crap" Iruka concentrated for a second before he took off. His speed was beyond fast it was amazing. He saw his goal and stopped dead front ahead of Sasuke causing the boy to stop in a halt.  
  
"What are you? Some kind of ninja?" Sasuke's breathing was heavy.  
  
Iruka looked up at him, they were both soaked. Iruka's hair was sticking to his face and both of their legs were covered in mud.  
  
"Why....why did you come over here? And why did you run from me?" Iruka took a deep breath before looking up a Sasuke confused.  
  
"Why?! Is that really your question? You passed out! I wanted to make sure you were okay! Dang it! And with Kakashi's stupid excuse, that the evil raccoon had rabies so that now you do and are slowly going mad? You really expect me to believe it? Poor Naruto is probably still shaking in that stupid corner!" Sasuke looked over at Iruka angrily.  
  
"And why can't I sense you? Where is your chakra? Do you even have any? What are you? Can you answer anything?" Sasuke started walking over to the tired boy.  
  
Iruka startled, he didn't know what to say. He looked down and started backing up hoping Sasuke wouldn't catch him.  
  
"Uh.....um...." Iruka tried to find something to concentrate his gaze on but he kept returning to Sasuke.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Kakashi opened his eyes.  
  
"Iruka?" He looked on the side of the bed that the boy used to be.  
  
He looked around and noticed the window was closed now. He got up and began searching the house.  
  
"Iruka?" He looked in the bathroom and then the kitchen.  
  
"Okay so Iruka isn't in his house when it is pouring down rain outside, no need to panic." Kakashi stood in the middle of the house.  
  
"IRUKAAAA!!!!!!" Kakashi ran out of the house as fast as he could.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka backed up into a tree.  
  
"Why wont you tell me anything?" Sasuke's voice had gotten a little softer as he put his hand against the tree and above Iruka's head.  
  
"Do you realize what you are doing to me? And I have no idea why. You just seem to remind me of someone I know." Sasuke smiled as he used his other hand to move Iruka's hair out of his face.  
  
"So that's why you wear a bandage on you face." Sasuke traced the scar on Iruka's nose.  
  
"I am glad I got one answer today." Sasuke smiled as he leaned in and pressed his lips against Iruka's.  
  
"Mnm!" Iruka's eyes went wide as he tried to struggle, which didn't really help considering he was between a tree and another body.  
  
Iruka tried to say something again but Sasuke took that chance to slide his tongue in. Iruka decided to hit him but one of his arms were caught by Sasuke's free hand as Iruka's other hand tightly gripped Sasuke's shirt sleeve.  
  
Flashes of Kakashi went through Iruka's head, but this isn't Kakashi......is it? He doesn't look like Kakashi but he acts like him.  
  
"No its not Kakashi, Kakashi is older he isn't young anymore. Unlike you Akuri-kun or do I mean Iruka-kun?" A familiar voice went through Iruka's head.  
  
Sasuke pulled out of the kiss and smiled.  
  
"So is that what you do at night to little children Sasuke?"  
  
Sasuke looked up and saw Kakashi on the tree branch above them. Ironically he had the turtleneck pulled up. He had a weird look in his eyes, almost like jealousy.  
  
"Why are you here Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke's eyes never left the shinobi as he jumped off the branch.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka looked at both of him.  
  
All he could hear was yelling and saw them make gesturing poses at each other.  
  
Kakashi? Iruka looked up at the older ninja.  
  
That looks like Kakashi but then who is that? Iruka turned his gaze to Sasuke who looked very angry.  
  
That is Sasuke my student? Right? Maybe?  
  
"How would you know? You don't even know who you are."  
  
What? Where are you? You sound so familiar.  
  
"Well that's because I am you silly, you cant see yourself unless you look at a reflection."  
  
Iruka closed his eyes.  
  
It was him, both of him.  
  
One older, one younger.  
  
They just stood smiling in Iruka's direction.  
  
Who are you? Are you me? But how? Is there two of me?  
  
"I am Umino Iruka, age 24, I teach at a school, nice to meet you." The older smiled.  
  
"I am Umino Iruka, age 12, I am a prankster and probably get on everyone's nerves." The younger smiled, but it was a sad smile.  
  
Then another younger version of himself appeared. But it looked different. His hair was down. His eyes, they looked evil.  
  
"I am Akuri-kun, you could be me also." It smiled evilly as a strange presence went around it.  
  
Both of the other forms smiled and nodded slowly getting sucked into the evil one's aura.  
  
What? What is going on? Who are you?  
  
"I am you? But then again who are you? They do not know. Do they?"  
  
Then pictures of everyone that Iruka had ever met appeared around him, they were all sleeping except Kakashi and Sasuke who were arguing, but he couldn't make out the words.  
  
Was this now?  
  
Then he looked around, Naruto?  
  
Naruto was standing in the rain, he had an umbrella but he looked hurt. His eyes had tears in them, he was watching something but what was it?  
  
Naruto why do you look so sad? Is it my fault? I know it is, I try to help everyone but all I do is get in the way of bigger plans they had, they get held back.  
  
All because of me.  
  
"Who am I? Where am I? Will I be stuck in this void forever?"  
  
"You Stupid Teme!!!!!"  
  
"Sasuke?"  
  
"Oh wow your maturity seems to amaze me everyday Sasuke"  
  
"Kakashi?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka opened his eyes. His whole body was shaking.  
  
Sasuke grabbed Iruka's arm roughly and pulled Iruka toward him.  
  
"I will not let little boys stay with nasty perverts like you."  
  
Sasuke got a chill; he looked to his side and saw a fist.  
  
"Ugh!" Sasuke flew into the mud.  
  
Naruto was standing there above him with a very angry look in his eyes. He had seen everything.  
  
That was all Iruka could handle, he was tired, confused, and cold. He needed to find someone that never changed no matter what. Naruto.  
  
"Naruto! What the.....?"  
  
"Don't you even Sasuke! I am not in the mood for your stupidity!" Naruto shot him an angry glare.  
  
"Did you forget you already had m.......!" Naruto caught himself and turned around trying to hide his hurt expression.  
  
Then Naruto waked over to Kakashi and pushed him into the mud too giving him an, 'you are Iruka's horrible student and disserve to die and go to a very bad place' glare.  
  
"And you! Making fun of his maturity level?" Naruto pointed at Sasuke, "What about yours? You really think that kids like us want to look up to you? No! We don't! Not when you are like this!"  
  
"Gawd! You guys are so annoying! What are you fighting over? Huh? Is it Akuri-kun? If so that is sick! You have him out here in this cold rain! He could get really sick! And I bet that it wouldn't help with his rabies either!" Naruto put his jacket over Iruka grabbing his hand and pulling him under the umbrella too.  
  
"Kakashi-sensei do not expect me or Akuri-kun at any of the practices for the next two days!" Naruto shot them both one more glare before starting to walk home with Iruka.  
  
Kakashi and Sasuke sat there staring in aw. Naruto had just told them both off, and got away with Akuri/Iruka.  
  
They never wanted to see that side of Naruto ever again.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka walked into Naruto's house and turned around to see Naruto slowly shut his door and slide down it against his back.  
  
Naruto put his arms on his legs then leaned over, he couldn't handle it anymore. What was Sasuke thinking? He thought that Sasuke liked him, was he wrong?  
  
Iruka looked over at Naruto as his heart began to tear at every sob he heard. He walked over and hugged Naruto, he did it when he was bigger why couldn't he do it now?  
  
Naruto wrapped his arms around the smaller body and started crying one Iruka's shoulder.  
  
They slowly fell asleep in front of the door.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Naruto opened his eyes and looked around. It had to be around noon the next day because of the way the sun had lit his room.  
  
Then Naruto noticed something strange.  
  
He was in his room.  
  
Not only that but his room was clean.  
  
Then he noticed that he didn't have mud on his feet anymore, in fact he was wearing a whole new outfit.  
  
He slowly got up. Did he die and go to heaven? If he did then why did his head feel so horrible?  
  
Naruto jumped up when he heard a loud thud in his living room. He quickly ran out of his room and pulled two kunai out of his jacket.  
  
He stopped.  
  
His whole house was clean, beyond clean even. He could swear that his floor sparkled.  
  
"Ow!"  
  
Naruto looked up to see Iruka jumping on one foot. He had dropped the duster on his foot.  
  
Naruto smiled, Iruka was wearing a pair of his orange jumper pants (or at least it came out as pants on Iruka) and one of his black turtle necks that Naruto only wore when it was too cold. Iruka had it pulled up so it covered the bottom part of his face.  
  
He must be the Uke in his relationships. Naruto smiled as he thought about it.  
  
Iruka noticed him and ran over to Naruto. "Sorry Naruto-kun for borrowing your cloths without asking!" He did a small bow.  
  
"Naw, its okay Akuri-kun! Besides why are you cleaning my house?" Naruto gave Iruka his confused fox smile.  
  
"Oh but it was so messy!" Iruka's eyes started watering at picturing the messy rooms in his mind again. How did he ever let Naruto get away with living in such a mess?  
  
Naruto just smiled, "You are just like someone I know Akuri-kun. You two would probably get along really well too. Did you know Iruka?" Naruto started walking into his kitchen.  
  
"Oh....um....." Iruka looked around hoping to find an answer, "I think I may have met him a few times. Were you two good friends?" Iruka smiled.  
  
"Yeah Iruka-sensei is probably my best friend!" Naruto blushed at giving such mushy answer.  
  
Iruka blushed too, but it was hidden under the cloth of the turtleneck. He was glad Naruto thought that way of him.  
  
Naruto started looking through his cabinets, which were now very organized, and finally found some ramen.  
  
"You like ramen for breakfast?" Naruto smiled.  
  
"Actually that sounds great!" Iruka was surprised at how good that sounded to his stomach right then.  
  
"You know Akuri-kun, I think you are really nice!" Naruto grinned as he began to prepare their breakfast.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ fin  
  
Ooops I don't think I had anything in this story that had anything to do with last chapter's summary for this story.  
  
Oh well did you enjoy it anyway? Hehehehehehe  
  
Okay so those things will happen later on okay! Please don't flame me................*sniffles*  
  
Oh yeah by the way. If you were confused at the beginning of the story talking about Kakashi's and Iruka's first kiss together.  
  
Read : Growing Pains by P-sama7!!! She is my (older) twin sister! We decided it would be fun if our stories would mix every once in a while! Haha!!!!  
  
But unlike me, her fav character is Sasuke.  
  
*glares at Sasuke* I hate you. If you weren't a character that can get the story moving then I would kill you at the beginning.  
  
Sasuke: Why me?  
  
K-chan: Because you suck.  
  
Sasuke: -_-;;  
  
Iruka: Okay so um.......please R&R! *pats Sasuke on back* Its okay.  
  
Sasuke: well she likes you!  
  
K-chan: Replies to reviews below! *points down*  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ Next Chapter Summary!!!!!  
  
You probably can just read the last chapter's summary but here is a hint of the beginning:  
  
Kakashi opened his eyes and moaned. "I lost Iruka."  
  
He felt something warm moving slowly beside him. He slowly moved his head to his side.  
  
Sasuke was sitting there cuddling with his pillow.  
  
Kakashi sighed and turned back over and slowly closed his eyes to fall back asleep.  
  
"Wait.......What!?!?!?" Kakashi sat up and looked back over at the boy.  
  
K-chan: *cackles evilly*  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ Replies to Reviews:  
  
Morien Alexander: Are you hentai? Lol ..hehe me too! ^_^  
Oh yeah! And update your story: Sometimes its really good!  
  
Jade Dragoness: You rock! And How Iruka ever got the jutsu in his head will be revealed! HaHa! Oh yeah! You update your story too!!!!!!!  
Birthday Present is cool too!!!!!!!!  
  
Bishiehuggler: Um If there is any IruLee its all in Lee's head but that is in later chapters heheeee! *grins evilly at unsuspecting lee* 


	4. Who am I?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give."  
~P.D. James  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Chapter 4: Who am I........  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Kakashi opened his eyes and moaned. "I lost Iruka."  
  
This was not good. Iruka was in a vulnerable state right now; he is not supposed to lose him. Even if it was all confusing him on what he had actually done wrong, Kakashi felt like he owed a lot of people apologies. Mainly Iruka and Naruto.  
  
He felt something warm moving slowly beside him. He slowly moved his head to his side. Sasuke was sitting there cuddling with his pillow.  
  
Kakashi sighed and turned back over and slowly closed his eyes to fall back asleep.  
  
"Wait.......What!?!?!?" Kakashi sat up and looked back over at the boy. His back hit the wall behind him as he jumped.  
  
Sasuke moved slowly still with the pillows in his hands as he rolled over.  
  
Kakashi quickly threw off the covers and made sure everything was still intact; clothes, turtleneck up, and all. He looked over at Sasuke who was still dressed also; they were both still muddy and wet from the rain the night before.  
  
Kakashi looked around and noticed he was in Iruka's house. Why did he come here? Did he bring Sasuke? He must have brought him here because of the rain but all he could remember was Iruka's scared and confused face. This was not good.  
  
"Hn?" Sasuke opened his eyes lazily as he looked up at Kakashi. He sighed and closed his eyes again trying to go back to sleep.  
  
"What the heck?" He quickly jumped back dropping the pillow and falling off the bed. His eyes went wide as he began to make sure all of his cloths were still on.  
  
"Good morning Sasuke!" Kakashi said it in such a cheerful manner it made Sasuke very nervous. "Did you like last night?" Sasuke's eyes went wide as Kakashi began to get closer to him.  
  
"You know......the rain, the late night visit, you kissing Akuri, and getting Naruto mad at us....." Kakashi sighed as he stood up. Having the happy go lucky Naruto mad at you was not a good thing, especially when he had Iruka with him.  
  
"Oh crap Naruto...." Sasuke shut his eyes remembering everything from the night before. He screwed up.  
  
"Well come on now, we have a lot of clean up to do...." Kakashi made his way to the door.  
  
"We? What did you do wrong?" Sasuke stood and walked over to the jonin.  
  
"Naruto was mad at me too, but unlike you I can get away with buying him ramen. Plus I need to apologize to Akuri. As do you, that was stupid what you did." Kakashi glared at Sasuke, he hated the fact that Sasuke had kissed Iruka....in his child form or not.  
  
"Crap." Sasuke blushed as they both ran out of the door. Not remembering the large muddy mess they left on the bed.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Hey Akuri hurry up!" Naruto yelled as he put his shoes on. He was going to introduce Akuri to Lee and his group since they had the day off.  
  
"Thank you for letting me borrow a bandage!" Iruka yelled running out of the bathroom. He had gotten tired of using the turtleneck as a cover of his face.  
  
"No problem! Lets go!" Naruto opened the door and stopped.  
  
"What is wrong Naruto?" Iruka looked out of the door to see Kakashi and Sasuke sitting in front of the house with their eyes closed. What were they doing?  
  
"Come on lets go before they notice us." Naruto whispered as they began to tip toe until they were far enough away to run. Iruka felt kind of stupid tip-toeing but in the end though it was a bit fun.  
  
"Okay wait here until I find Lee-kun! You will think he is sooo cool!" Naruto grinned when they arrived at the park, forgetting that Sasuke was still at his house. He quickly ran off leaving Iruka in the middle of the park, alone.  
  
He remembered Rock Lee, it was the kid who couldn't use ninjutsu but he was still very gifted. If he remembered correctly he had Gai as an instructor and in his group were Hyuga Neji and Tenten....the girl who was really good with throwing type weapons.  
  
Iruka looked around, there were only a few kids playing on the playground but the rest had to be in school. Thinking about the kids in school made Iruka a little upset, he missed his classes.  
  
"Hey kid are you new here?"  
  
Iruka turned around to face three girls. They were his old students. Kasha, Genii, and Conan, but what were they doing out of school?  
  
"Oh wow you are a pretty girl!" Kasha began to blush.  
  
"Well are you new here?" Conan repeated herself. She eyed Iruka suspiciously.  
  
"Um...I am a boy." Iruka grinned as he saw all three students blush.  
  
"Iruka-sensei is that you?" The usually shy girl Genii jumped out from being behind Conan. "I know its you! I thought you were on a mission!"  
  
"No way! That isn't Iruka-sensei Genii!" Kasha looked at her friend confused.  
  
"No he looks like Iruka-sensei! And Genii would know!" Conan patted her now blushing friend on the back.  
  
"Shhhhhh....call me Akuri, please." Iruka smiled at them nervously, how was he going to explain this?  
  
"Huh? Akuri? Why? And what are you doing in that outfit? Borrowing cloths from Naruto?" Kasha crossed her arms; she still didn't believe that it was Iruka-sensei.  
  
"Um....yeah." Iruka looked at the bright orange pants he was wearing, they screamed Naruto.  
  
"But aren't you on a mission? Isn't that why we got divided up among the other teachers?" Genii looked very confused but she loved seeing Iruka as a little boy again.  
  
"Uh....Yeah! I am on a mission right now! I am just doing some minor things and I had to be a kid for it! And....you cannot tell anyone! Not even your parents!" Iruka tried to make up the best lie possible.  
  
"Well if you say so but come back soon....I don't like any of the other teachers." Kasha sighed, she hated the way they were so boring.  
  
"Don't worry I will!" Iruka smiled but then something popped up in the back of his mind. "Wait a second!"  
  
All the girls jumped at his sudden outburst.  
  
"Why aren't you three at the school right now?" Iruka gave them one of his 'bad student' glares.  
  
"Oh.....uh....." Conan looked at Kasha for an excuse.  
  
"Go back now!" Iruka smiled pushing them toward the school as the girls sighed.  
  
"Yes sir!" They shouted as they ran back to the school.  
  
"Akuri come here!" Iruka turned around to see Naruto being followed by three other people. He quickly ran over but stopped when he noticed Lee blushing.  
  
"Wow Naruto! She is almost as pretty as Sakura-chan!" Lee jumped in front of Iruka causing him to take a step back. Not again.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Okay I think I can do it." Sasuke stood up and began to walk up to the door.  
  
"They left a few minutes ago." Kakashi stood up also and began to walk into the direction they ran.  
  
"What? When? Why didn't you tell me?" Sasuke ran up to catch up with Kakashi.  
  
"It was really funny to watch you think on how to apologize. This must be a first for you or something." Kakashi began to laugh as Sasuke rolled his eyes and then glared at him.  
  
They looked around the city and most places Naruto would hang out or hide but didn't see either of them anywhere.  
  
"That is so weird seeing him small like that!" Kakashi looked over to see three girls running out of the park.  
  
"I think he is cute!" The short one with purple hair giggled as they ran toward the school.  
  
Kakashi had an odd feeling that they had seen Iruka.  
  
"I found them Sasuke!" Kakashi yelled behind him as he began to walk towards the park.  
  
"Wow Naruto! She is almost as pretty as Sakura-chan!" Kakashi hid behind a bush with Sasuke as they watched Lee blushing.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"No Lee! Akuri is a boy!" Naruto whispered causing Lee and his teammates to blush.  
  
"Oh sorry about that Akuri-kun! Lee is a little crazy!" Tenten snickered as she looked over at Lee.  
  
"Was there a point in all of us coming?" Neji looked over to Lee a little agitated with his milky eyes.  
  
"Yeah today was our only day off Lee, I need to go do some things to get ready for the party tomorrow!" Tenten crossed her arms against her chest.  
  
"Party?" Naruto's eyes gleamed.  
  
"Yeah! We are going to have a party and Ino-chan's house since her parents are out of town! You and Akuri are invited too!" Lee smiled doing his thumbs up pose.  
  
"Okay but don't tell anyone else, its invitation only!" Tenten whispered over to Naruto who nodded.  
  
"I am going now." Neji sighed as he began to walk off.  
  
"Yeah I need to talk to Gai-sensei! I will see you later Naruto!" Lee smiled and then quickly ran off.  
  
"It was nice to meet you Akuri-kun I hope you stay in town long enough to go to the party!" Tenten blushed at Iruka and smiled, walking off.  
  
"Hey Naruto!" Iruka and Naruto both turned to see Kakashi and Sasuke walking from the woods.  
  
"Go away!" Naruto huffed crossing his arms; "Akuri and I don't want to see you two right now."  
  
Kakashi sighed and looked down at Iruka who was smiling at him.  
  
"Well Akuri seems happy to see me." Everyone looked down at Iruka who was still smiling; he was invited to a party.  
  
"Akuri-kun!" Iruka snapped out of his daze and looked over at Naruto.  
  
"Hn?"  
  
"I need to talk to Akuri so you two solve your differences while we go chat!" Kakashi walked over and began to push Iruka away from Naruto and Sasuke.  
  
"Hey!" Naruto glared at Kakashi and then moved to Sasuke who was standing in front of him.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Are you feeling okay?" Kakashi looked over at Iruka a little worried. Something about Iruka was changing he just couldn't pin it down.  
  
"Yeah....spending time with Naruto like that was fun." Iruka sighed and took hold of Kakashi's hand startling the jonin. If he were bigger he would never had done anything like that in public, so he decided it would be smart for him to take advantage of it now.  
  
"Are you sure you are alright?" Kakashi didn't like to hear Iruka sigh like that.  
  
"Am I troublesome?" Iruka looked up into the eye of the jonin.  
  
"What? Why would you think that?" Kakashi pulled Iruka to a bench so that they could sit down and talk.  
  
"Because I just get in everyone's way. Making you look after me and getting Naruto upset." Iruka sighed again but never let go of Kakashi's large hand.  
  
"No Iruka." Kakashi squeezed the young chunin's hand. "You are anything but troublesome. I volunteered to watch you because I care about you and it's not your fault for Naruto getting mad, its Sasuke's."  
  
His voice went to joking at the last part causing Iruka to smile again. But he still felt like he got in everyone's way.  
  
"You are covered in mud!" Iruka had looked down to his feet with he noticed mud all over the jonin's outfit. Had he been wearing that outfit since last night?  
  
"Oh yeah...guess it slipped my mind." Kakashi curved his one visible eye as he stood up. "You ready to go home?"  
  
"Yeah." Iruka stood on top of the bench so he came to Kakashi's jaw. He was really short and Kakashi was really tall. "let's go!"  
  
They vanished.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"MY BED!!!!!!" Iruka stared in aw at his now incredibly muddy bed.  
  
"Hn?" Kakashi popped his head out of the bathroom. "What is the matter?"  
  
"My bed is all muddy! Did you do this?" Iruka looked up at Kakashi almost in tears, he hated large messes.  
  
"No Sasuke did it too." Kakashi said plainly smiling at the shocked impression of Iruka's face.  
  
"Wha...what...Sasuke was here last night with you? On my bed?" He could feel his face flush as conclusions ran through his head.  
  
"Not like that Iruka," Kakashi grinned as he came out now in a clean outfit. "My how your mind has perverted."  
  
Iruka gave Kakashi a sad face as he blushed; he never wanted to think of Kakashi being with another person ever again. It made him upset.  
  
"I will clean that, why don't you take a shower too and change." Kakashi motioned Iruka to the bathroom.  
  
"What is wrong with the outfit I have on?" Iruka looked at the bright orange pants, he began to like them.  
  
"Nothing I just thought you might like to shower." Kakashi began to strip Iruka's bed, "And then I can help you too!" He grinned.  
  
"Oh no need!" Iruka blushed as he began to go through the large side pockets on Naruto's pants. "Naruto is letting me borrow this!"  
  
He pulled out a back scrubbing brush; Iruka didn't notice the disappointed look he was getting from Kakashi.  
  
"But... but!" Kakashi sighed in defeat. He knew Iruka really wasn't the type of person to let other people join him in the bath.  
  
Though he thought that he should still do something to cheer Iruka up.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka came out and notice Kakashi was putting on his shoes.  
  
"Going some where Kakashi?" Iruka smiled putting on a now baggy shirt of his.  
  
"Yeah, I wanted to take you out tonight." Kakashi handed Iruka the sandals he had been wearing, they were an old pair of Kakashi's.  
  
"Really!" Iruka blushed as he put on an old pair of Kakashi's black pants. "Where are we going?"  
  
"Any where you want to." Kakashi smiled as he lifted up his mask.  
  
"Ichiraku!" Iruka quickly put the shoes on and smiled, not noticing the now very surprised face of the jonin. "Is that okay with you? For some reason I am craving ramen!"  
  
"Yeah that sounds great." Kakashi curved his one visible eye as he opened the door to let Iruka out. Since when did Iruka crave ramen with out Naruto? Kakashi couldn't help but get worried that it was a symptom of a character change.  
  
"You forgot this." Kakashi squatted down so he could be face to face with Iruka as he slid a bandage over the young chunin's scar.  
  
"Thanks." Iruka couldn't help but blush as Kakashi stood up and grabbed his hand as they began walking.  
  
"Hey Akuri-kun is that you?" Iruka and Kakashi looked over to see Lee running over with Gai.  
  
"Hey Lee-kun!" Iruka was getting used to calling his students kun or chan.  
  
"You know Kakashi-sensei?" Lee smiled with a blush on his cheeks.  
  
"So Lee this is the new kid you were telling me about?" Gai looked down at Iruka and smiled, "Nice to finally meet you Akuri my name is Gai." He squatted down and put his hand out to shake Iruka's.  
  
For some reason Iruka couldn't get his eyes off of Gai's face or eyebrows. He knew it was rude....but they were so disgusting. That is when he noticed Gai's hand out.  
  
"Oh.....nice to meet you too Gai....um san?" Iruka smiled reaching his hand out to shake the bigger, never letting his other hand lose grip on Kakashi's.  
  
"Oh its Gai-sensei!" Gai motioned him the correct formality before he stood up and smiled at Kakashi. Who was looking down at Iruka, he knew Iruka had already known Gai so why did he use san than the usual sensei?  
  
Something about Gai's smile toward Kakashi Iruka did not like.  
  
Gai looked down and noticed Kakashi's hand holding Iruka's. His smile left but quickly came back as he rubbed Lee's hair.  
  
"So Kakashi....is Akuri a relative?" Gai grinned down at Iruka, who returned an annoyed glare. He didn't like the way Gai was talking to Kakashi, or his body language, or the fact that he was delaying their dinnertime.  
  
"Not really, he is a friend's friend's relative's second nephew's uncle's grandson." Kakashi smiled he like to say things like that. It was fun to confuse people, even more so Gai.  
  
"Hey well maybe after you drop him off we can go out to dinner.....before a quick match." Gai patted Kakashi's arm in such a way Iruka couldn't handle the flirting anymore.  
  
"No well actually Gai..."  
  
"OW!!!" Gai interrupted Kakashi as he grabbed his shin. Kakashi looked down to see Iruka smirking before he stepped back.  
  
"Akuri-kun?" Lee looked over at Iruka confused.  
  
"Brat that hurt!" Gai looked over angrily at Iruka who just smirked back before wrapping his arms around Kakashi's leg and mouthing the word 'mine'. He won.  
  
Gai stared in aw at the kid, he couldn't believe it! This kid kicked him in the shin because he wanted Kakashi?  
  
"Oh sorry Gai he is a little happy right now......" Kakashi glared down at Iruka for being so childish, this was not good. "I am taking him to Ichiraku."  
  
"Well we better be going now before he attacks you too Lee." Kakashi pulled Iruka by the arm until they were far from the two.  
  
"Iruka why did you do that?" Kakashi took Iruka into an ally so that no one would see them.  
  
"I...because...um...he was flirting with you and I was...." Iruka couldn't help but get a little confused at himself. Why did he do that? He knew Gai liked Kakashi but he also knew that Kakashi didn't return the feeling. He knew Kakashi liked him. So then why?  
  
"You know all about that situation Iruka........" Kakashi sighed as he put his hand on Iruka's head and rubbed his hair. He didn't really mind the fact that Iruka had kicked Gai; it was just the fact that it was Iruka and he doesn't usually do those types of things.  
  
He doesn't do anything disrespectful.  
  
"I am sorry Kakashi, that was really stupid of me! It is just.......I don't know! I got really angry.....it was weird." Iruka looked up at Kakashi and tried to smile, he didn't understand. After all these years he thought that he could control his emotions in any situation.  
  
Was he slowly losing control now? Because of the jutsu?  
  
He felt his legs grow weak. What was happening?  
  
He fell backwards losing his vision.  
  
Darkness.  
  
Iruka looked around. Wasn't he just in the alley with Kakashi?  
  
"Kakashi?" Iruka turned around; he was surrounded by the darkness. "Kakashi where are you?"  
  
No reply.  
  
"Where am I?" Iruka turned around again, this time to see a reflection of him. But it wasn't a reflection. It moved on its own.....it looked so sad.  
  
"Who are you?" He tried to get the words out without sounding as scared as he was.  
  
The figure looked up at him, its eyes full of tears.  
  
"I am Iruka, no body loves me. I thought that someone may have, but it wasn't so." The child got up and walked over to Iruka, "Will you love me?"  
  
Iruka backed up causing the child to frown and then disappear.  
  
What was that?! Iruka looked around in the darkness. Where did that boy go? Was he really Iruka?  
  
"Hello there." Iruka turned around to see another form of himself. It was smiling; its eyes were strange and green.  
  
"Are you me?" Iruka reached his arm out to touch it, but it smiled and backed away.  
  
"No silly, I am Akuri and Iruka. I am you but not. You and I are the same." The child's grin changed into a smirk.  
  
How could that be? Two of him? Who was he? Where was he?  
  
"You cannot touch me but I can touch you. I need you." The child smirked as it lifted its hand and pushed Iruka's hair behind his ear.  
  
"Who are you? If you are me but I am not you, then who am I? Why can't I touch you?" Iruka could feel his body begin to ache; he was so confused.  
  
"I already answered those questions silly." The child backed away smiling again.  
  
"Who was that boy crying? Is he me?" Iruka looked around trying to find the boy again.  
  
"He is you but also I. Because we are one and the same." The child smiled and walked back over to Iruka.  
  
"Only I can be me, so then who are you? I want a real answer." Iruka glared at the child; he could only believe this was some kind of illusion.  
  
"I am you. Why don't you believe me?" The child looked at Iruka with sad eyes sending chills down his entire body. This child could not be human.  
  
"If you are me then why do you have two names?" Iruka glared at the child. He was not going to be fooled; he needed to get back to Kakashi.  
  
"I am you and everything you wanted to be. I am you but the opposite and yet the same. I am everything everyone else wants you to be." The child still had a hurt expression on its face.  
  
If this child was really him, then why did it have green eyes?  
  
"Prove it." Iruka couldn't think of anything else to say, he was curious of to why this child thought it was Iruka.  
  
"You are lonely yet you have many friends. You cannot love yet you have a lover. You have no family but have silently brought a boy into your heart and your home. You are the contradiction of souls. I have come to relieve your pain." The child brought a small smile onto its sad face.  
  
"What?" Iruka looked questionably at the child. What was it talking about? Did he really feel this way? No he wasn't lonely anymore, he loved, took in Naruto. But what did the child mean by contradict himself? Relieve his pain?  
  
"You are obviously mistaken I......."  
  
"Am I?" The child interrupted Iruka as it began to walk around him. "How many real friends do you have? Real ones that you can trust no matter what? How many days have you gotten home and could only feel loneliness? Who was there to comfort you? Do you really love Kakashi? Yet you doubt him, his love for you. You can never have a family, how long do you think Naruto will let you play father?"  
  
Iruka could feel his heart breaking as the child spoke pulling Iruka deeper into the darkness. What was this child talking about? How did it know? Was this child really him? All his doubts, fears, and feelings?  
  
"No one loves you. No one can. How can anyone love someone who doesn't even know who he is?" The child stopped in front of Iruka and smiled. "Only I can love you because you are I and I am you."  
  
Iruka's head was spinning. This child was not making any sense. What did it know? This child was an obvious illusion just trying to confuse his mind......right?  
  
"All the love, caring, happiness, gratitude......" The child continued, "Everything you have ever received from another person has been fake. It is all an illusion that you put up for yourself. You will not accept the reality of things."  
  
"What reality?" Iruka was so confused.....he felt lost and alone. Why was he feeling this way? Where did Kakashi go? Why was he here and how did he get here?  
  
"The reality that no one loves you. They want you to go away and stop ruining their lives. You will see and then you will understand. I will come back to take you away."  
  
"Wait.....what?" Iruka watched the child disappear as it smiled.  
  
What was that child talking about? He wanted answers...he needed answers.  
  
He felt a sudden feeling of warmth take over his entire body as he gasped. It felt so nice.  
  
"Iruka....."  
  
Iruka looked around in the darkness, did he just hear Kakashi?  
  
"Iruka-sensei can you hear me?"  
  
Hiashi-san? Where were they? Iruka couldn't see them anywhere. All he could see was a never-ending void.  
  
Darkness.  
  
Iruka's head began to hurt causing him to grasp it with his hands. He felt as if something was being taken away from his mind.  
  
"Agh!" He yelled as the pain got worse, he closed his eyes as he began to tremble again.  
  
"Iruka! Open your eyes!"  
  
Iruka opened his eyes at the sound of Kakashi's command. He sat up grasping his head.  
  
"Iruka are you okay?" Iruka looked over to see Kakashi with a very worried expression. His face seemed paler than usual.  
  
"Hn?" Iruka a sudden sense of joy and relief at the sight of the silver hair jonin. But why? Who was this guy?  
  
"Iruka-sensei are you okay?" Hiashi came running into the room. Iruka looked at the taller man. He seemed familiar also....like a friend. Should he know them?  
  
"What happened Iruka?" Kakashi pulled the small form into a hug. "Why did you pass out?"  
  
"Hn? Pass out?" Iruka looked at Hiashi and Kakashi confused. He passed out. So everything that just happened was all just a dream? But it seemed so real....was it?  
  
"I know you just woke up Iruka but I need you to answer a few questions I have." Hiashi gently motioned Kakashi to move so he could inspect the chunin.  
  
"Who is Iruka? Why do you two keep calling me that?" Iruka had no idea who this Iruka was and why they kept calling him that, because his name was.....what was his name? Was it Iruka?  
  
Hiashi and Kakashi stared at Iruka in aw. Was he serious?  
  
"Better yet, how about you two introduce yourselves also." Iruka looked over at their shocked faces. What was their problem?  
  
"Iruka! It's me Kakashi! What is wrong?" Kakashi pushed Hiashi to the side as he grabbed Iruka's shoulders. "You are joking right?"  
  
"Uh....um..." Iruka looked down, the pain in the silver haired man's eyes was to much to handle. The tight grasp on his shoulders made him uncomfortable as his head began to hurt again. He obviously should knows these two people so why doesn't he?  
  
"Ack!" Iruka grasped his head again as the pain took over it. It was so unbearable. What was going on?  
  
"My name is Umino Iruka age 24 I teach at the academy to very hyper active students and I help Hokage-sama with his paper work. You are Hatake Kakashi my lover and best friend you teach Naruto. You are Hyuga Hiashi, leader of the Hyuga clan in Konoha." Iruka stopped and opened his eyes.  
  
Why did he say that out loud?  
  
Why was Kakashi holding his shoulders so tightly?  
  
"Uh....Kakashi? Why are you holding my shoulders? It hurts." Iruka looked up into the worried expression Kakashi had. Why did he look so worried?  
  
Kakashi let go of Iruka and pulled down his mask. "Iruka?"  
  
"Yes?" Kakashi sighed in relief as he pulled the form into another hug. That was not good.  
  
"Iruka I need you to answer some questions, quickly please." Hiashi moved back to be beside Kakashi, they both had extremely worried expressions on their faces.  
  
"Uh........sure. Okay I will try my best." Iruka tried to smile but it seemed to not want to come out. Why were they acting so weird?  
  
"Kakashi has informed me that you have seemed to be acting differently today. Can you remember anything changing or do you feel different?" Hiashi pulled out a flashlight and began to inspect Iruka's eyes.  
  
"Um.....I am always hungry........and I seem to get angrier more easily now." Iruka tried to think of anything but nothing came up. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him.  
  
"Your anger...what do you mean?" Hiashi began to check Iruka's pulse.  
  
"Um......I don't remember....I think I may have seen Gai-kun I mean sensei.....that is all I can really remember...." Iruka thought that he may have lost his anger but his mind kept going blank. Was he forgetting something?  
  
"You kicked him in the shin." Kakashi decided he may be able to help Iruka with his sudden lost of memory.  
  
"Hmmmmm....." Hiashi looked at Iruka. "Do you not remember that?"  
  
"Uh.....no." Iruka looked over at Kakashi....did he really kick Gai in the shin? He was going to have to apologize.  
  
"Stand still." Hiashi backed up as he closed his eyes. Iruka could see the vein popping out as he was pulling out the byakugan.  
  
Hiashi opened his eyes and quickly scanned Iruka's body. "You see Iruka....there was a strange chakra flow that quickly went through your body but quickly left.....can you explain what that was? What was going on in your mind?"  
  
Strange serge of chakra? Iruka thought that his chakra was blocked. Then he thought of that strange child with green eyes......it seemed so real.  
  
"Nothing but small little things....." Iruka lied. He didn't fell the need to tell Hiashi or Kakashi that some child told him a lot of stuff. Stuff........not truth.  
  
"Iruka do you remember what happened when you woke up?" Hiashi grabbed a scroll and began to write on it.  
  
"Only that when I opened my eyes Kakashi was holding my shoulders.....why? Did something else happen?" Iruka noticed that neither of them would look him in the eyes. "What? What happened?"  
  
"Nothing other than that. Thank you Iruka....can you stay here for a second please." Hiashi motioned for Kakashi to join him in the hall when Iruka nodded.  
  
What on earth is going on here? Iruka felt a little left out as he laid back down on the bed, he guessed he was at the Hyuga house because the room certainly wasn't the hospital, or Kakashi's or even his. Not even the Hokage's room was this clean.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"As you guess this is a bad sign Kakashi." Hiashi sighed as he leaned against the hall wall.  
  
"How much time do you think he has?" Kakashi tried to hide the pain in his eyes; he couldn't lose Iruka. Not like this....he couldn't handle losing another friend.  
  
"I don't know.....honestly Kakashi I will say not that much longer. A few days at the most. I have also came up with some conclusions...things you should watch out for." Hiashi sighed again as he began flipping through the papers he had in his hands; he did not want to be the one to give Kakashi bad news.  
  
"Like what? Warning signs?" Kakashi braced himself against the wall opposite of Hiashi, he could only think the worst.  
  
"I haven't gotten anything from Hokage-sama or Rei.....but from what I have found out about this jutsu.....I believe that his chakra flow has a lot to do with this......" Hiashi looked over at the puzzled look on Kakashi's face.  
  
"I thought that this was some kind of jutsu.....Do you really believe that it could stop his chakra from forming? The one thing that was taught all our lives as impossible?" Kakashi let the doubt run through his mind; though he had no doubt in his mind that Hiashi was right.  
  
"Sorry this is just too strange......." Kakashi tried his best to grin at Hiashi' taking note that his mask was still down so he pulled it back up.  
  
"Yes it is. It would help if Iruka had seen the jutsu before but as he has said it was new and foreign in his mind. I doubt but there still may be a possibility that it may have been performed on him..........but if that was the case why would the attacker leave after getting Iruka in such a vulnerable position." Hiashi sighed once again, "It just doesn't make sense."  
  
"So you were saying about the stuff I should watch out for........." Kakashi leaned his head against the wall and looked up at the ceiling, it reminded him of the hospital's...........plain.  
  
"Yes I believe that if any more physical changes occur you should bring him immediately to me...........no matter how small they seem. Also if he gets any more emotional changes........you know, like crying for no apparent reason or lashing out at usual friends. If his anger gets any worse you should report that immediately."  
  
"Anything else?" Kakashi prayed in his mind that everything Hiashi said would not happen again with Iruka.  
  
"Memory loss, more things like that.......and I think that it would be a good idea if you kept Iruka with you at all times and maybe let his interaction with children be little at minimum. You told me today that he spent it wait Naruto, is that right?"  
  
Kakashi nodded.  
  
"I believe that in this state being with kids around the age that he looks......he may begin to believe he truly is that age. It would be better if you kept him away, even from Naruto." Hiashi stopped looking at his papers and motioned he was done so they could go back in.  
  
"Wait a second....." Kakashi cursed himself as Hiashi stopped. Did he really want to know what he was going to ask?  
  
"How......How long would you guess....under your observations that Iruka has left to get the reverse jutsu?" Kakashi closed his eyes cursing himself again; he did not want the answer.  
  
Hiashi sighed.  
  
"A week at most."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
K-chan: OMG!!!!! Sorry it took me sooooo long to update!  
  
P-sama7: You are a horrible person! Your fans even began to bug me so I would bug you!  
  
K-chan: Really? *eyes sparkle* They like my story?  
  
P-sama: Gawd you are not this dense are you?........oh wait....sorry I forgot.  
  
K-chan: *eyes still sparkling* They even bugged you! They are the best people in the world!  
  
P-sama: It was only one fan....^_^;;;......besides if you like them so much why did it take you so long to update? Huh? Huh?  
  
K-chan: *tears* I AM A HORRIBLE PERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
P-sama: yep ^_^  
  
K-chan: first exams then texas for two weeks! Then I could only get home to sleep because of my job scheduling me so much! Then school starting again! It has been hectic!  
  
P-sama: uh huh.....excuses excuses.  
  
K-chan: You are just upset because I have a job so I can buy manga[3]....and cds and a printer for my comp......crap I don't think I have any money left.^_^;;;;  
  
P-sama: Baka[1].......  
  
K-chan: shut up! Who taught you Japanese?  
  
P-sama: the tooth fairy!  
  
K-chan: -_-;;; no!!! since when was that my job??? That is where my cash has gone to??? You evil .....evil......kijin[2]!  
  
P-sama: it is THE GREAT ALMIGHTY EVIL PINECONE!!!! To you little minion.  
  
K-chan: ^_^;;;  
  
P-sama: *cackles evilly* I will rule the world!  
  
K-chan: This is taking away the effect of my story......it is supposed to be serious!!!  
  
P-sama: Yeah you hate Iruka don't you......  
  
K-chan: NO!!!!!! I LOVE HIM!!!!!  
  
P-sama: yeah sure..... We will see what everyone else thinks you feel about him after next chapter.........hehe  
  
K-chan: You read it already?  
  
P-sama: yep  
  
K-chan: but I haven't even written it yet  
  
P-sama and K-chan: -_-o?  
  
K-chan: Okay well since you are here lets tell everyone about the fanfic that we are writing together!!!!  
  
*P-sama disappears*  
  
K-chan: -_-o?  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ Preview for next chapter!  
  
"Where is your chakra? What are you? Better yet who are you and why have you come to our village?" Neji glared down at Iruka who was now backed up into a tree.  
  
"Uhhhh......" Iruka looked around; the forest surrounded them. Why did he run in so deep? No one will be able to find them for a few hours.  
  
"Are you a ninja? Your skills are beyond even mine yet you have no chakra." Neji pulled another kunai out of his holster, he was going to find out why this intruder was here.  
  
"Neji!!!!!!!! Have you found Akuri yet?!!!!! We need to get back to the party!!!!!" Iruka looked to his left, Kiba was in the woods too. This was his chance.  
  
"Kib!!!!!!" A hand interrupted Iruka's shout and a kunai at his throat.  
  
"Now tell me.....what are you doing here." Neji let the cold steel of his kunai slowly touch Iruka's throat.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ BUM BUM BUMMMMMM!!!!  
  
Don't forget to read and review!!!!!! If you have any ideas on how this story should go feel free to mention it!!!! I have an open mind..........(x- cept I am not willing to have Iruka make out with Lee.........x_X that is just sick!) 


	5. The Big Party

IT IS FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"People seldom remember what you did or said but in the end remember you for how you made them feel."  
  
-K-chan's Pre-cal teacher!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Chapter 5 : The big party.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"How..................How long would you guess............under your observations that Iruka has left to get the reverse jutsu?" Kakashi closed his eyes cursing himself again; he did not want the answer.  
  
Hiashi sighed.  
  
"A week at most."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Kakashi are you okay?" Iruka tightened his grip on Kakashi's hand as they walked to his apartment.  
  
"Hn?" Kakashi looked down at the smaller ninja. What Hiashi told him kept repeating itself through his head. How was he going to tell Iruka?  
  
"I asked if you were okay?" Iruka couldn't help but worry about what Kakashi was thinking about; whatever Hiashi had told Kakashi had upset him in a large way.  
  
"Yeah I am fine just tired. What about you? Tired? Feel different anywhere?" Kakashi glanced over Iruka's body to make sure any deformities hadn't grown.  
  
"No I am just tired, it was nice of Hiashi to give us some ramen while we were over at his house." Iruka tried his best to cheer up the tired jonin.  
  
Kakashi sighed as they turned onto Iruka's street. He really needed to think.  
  
Iruka looked down at the ground. Was he really this much of a hassle for Kakashi?  
  
"You go on to bed I will be right back. I think I left my bag at my house." Kakashi smiled as Iruka walked into the house and nodded.  
  
Iruka sighed as he shut the door, he kicked Kakashi's bag that was beside the door. "Left your bag, heh." Iruka began to walk across his house to his room.  
  
"What was that about?" Iruka couldn't help but feel like he was being too troublesome for the jonin so he left.  
  
He looked over at the bed that seemed to be calling his name.  
  
"Goodnight." Iruka sighed as he climbed into the bed not bothering to change cloths, he didn't feel like he had enough energy to do anything right then.  
  
He felt lost and miserable. But who could he tell? He had intruded on Kakashi's time too much already and everyone else were too busy helping him already. Why did he have to be this way? Why did he have to be so weak?  
  
Sleep finally made its way to Iruka as a tear fell down over his cheek.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Bothersome.  
  
Inconvenient.  
  
Troublesome.  
  
Difficult.  
  
Annoying.  
  
Tiresome.  
  
Aggravating.  
  
All these words describe you Iruka.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka sat up sweating and breathing heavily. He looked back down at his hands, those dreams.....................the dreams, they were getting worse. The strange green eyed child, speaking only words of truth.  
  
But who was that child and how did it get in his dreams? It wasn't him....................or was it? Iruka shook his head; this was getting too confusing. He just wanted to leave, but he had never wanted to leave before.  
  
What was going on?  
  
He needed to think.  
  
Iruka quickly crawled out of his bed and ran into the kitchen to see Kakashi. The jonin was sleeping in a chair lying on his arms that were on the table.  
  
Iruka looked at the sleeping jonin and then over at the door. He knew somewhere in the back of his head that he should stay with the jonin but another part of his mind was yelling for him to leave.  
  
He quickly grabbed his shoes as he silently left the house.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Oi! Akuri-kun is that you?" Iruka stopped before he ran into a larger form. He quickly looked up to see Ino grinning beside two boys.  
  
"Uh............." Iruka looked at all of them, yeah he recognized the blonde girl as Ino, the boy with a pony tail looked familiar................it was that boy that slept through all of his classes.................what was his name? Shikamaru? And the other boy with the bag of chips had to be that one kid................Shikamaru's best friend...............Chouji................was it?  
  
"Oh Akuri I should apologize for the other day! The girls couldn't help themselves!" Ino laughed cheerfully. Iruka glared at her, oh yeah it was her fault that all of those girls were chasing him and it was her fault that Sasuke kissed him in the first place!  
  
"Ino stop bothering him!" Shikamaru sighed and looked up at his now shocked friend.  
  
"You mean that he is a guy? I thought he was a chick for a second." Choji laughed for a second before he realized that Shikamaru was glaring at him.  
  
Iruka shook his head, how could he think if he was going to be surrounded by people like them! He needed to get away.  
  
"Hey Akuri-kun are you coming to my party? It is tonight!" Ino grinned mischievously as she bent down so her face would be right in front of his.  
  
"Uh.................maybe Ino-chan...............I uhhhh.............got to um go now." Iruka did a small bow and looked up to see some confused faces. "Uh see you later Shikamaru-kun and Chouji-kun!" And with that he left running as fast as he could toward the woods.  
  
"Did we introduce ourselves to him?" Shikamaru looked up lazily to see his friend shake his head with a confused expression.  
  
"Oh I bet the big forehead girl just went on and on about how my team was so much better so he just guessed that you guys were part of it." Ino laughed before continuing their walk, being followed by some very reluctant boys.  
  
Iruka ran to the woods not really knowing where he was going but it had to be somewhere, anywhere.  
  
He stopped as he came to a clearing with a small shrine. It seemed so familiar but he couldn't place why, had he been here before? His mind kept telling him that he had spent many visits here...........but he still could not recognize it.  
  
He quickly ran up to the small marker and noticed that there were names written on it. He quickly scanned over it realizing some of the names sounded extremely familiar but only two of them stuck out in his mind.  
  
Umino Kingyo  
  
Umino Sashimi  
  
"What?" Iruka backed up from the sign....................they......................those names........................his parents?  
  
Did he have parents? Why are their names on this sign?  
  
/see if I was here I would have been able to protect them Iruka./  
  
Iruka quickly shock his head, he was missing something here! Why cant he remember anything?  
  
/you got that scar across our face trying to protect them but you were too weak./  
  
"Shut up!" Iruka yelled at the voice. What was going on? His parents died because of him? Why? What couldn't he do?  
  
/go away Iruka. Let me take over and you will never have to worry again./  
  
"No! Stop it!" Iruka grabbed his head as pain began to rush through it again.  
  
"Hey are you okay?" Iruka looked up to see a boy with his dog standing a few feet away from his with a girl who had milky eyes and another boy with sunglasses.  
  
Iruka looked back and forth at them, why cant he recognize anyone? This is so confusing?  
  
"Agh!." Iruka felt another jab of pain hit his side as he clenched it and fell on his knees.  
  
"Hey Chick!" The boy with the dog ran over and grabbed Iruka as his dog stopped short and started growling at Iruka.  
  
"Akamaru what is your problem? Hinata go get Kurenai-sensei! Shino go get some water or something!" With that command from Kiba the two ninjas were off as Akamaru stopped growling.  
  
"Hey chick! What is wrong?" Kiba forced Iruka to lay on his back.  
  
"I............I.............am a boy.............." Iruka became surrounded by darkness as his eyes shut.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Iruka.................Iruka..................." Iruka quickly opened his eyes and sat up. He quickly looked around to see Kurenai sitting beside him releasing a small sigh of relief.  
  
"Where am I?" Iruka glanced over at the curly haired jonin.  
  
"You are at my house.......................what happened Iruka?" Kurenai patted for the boy to lay back down as she held a damp cloth to his head.  
  
"I-I don't...................remember.............." Iruka tired to think but his mind kept going blank or it wasn't making any sense. It was like he was missing a part of him but he couldn't remember what.  
  
"Shhhhh............it is okay Iruka............." Kurenai put the cloth on his head and he looked over at her puzzled. Was she always this nice before?  
  
"I can't find Hiashi and Gai went to get Kakashi..............." Asuma walked into the room to see that Iruka was awake. "You alive? There are three genins out there wondering who the heck you are...................." Asuma sighed as he took a puff of his cigarette. "I told them you were a visiting relative of mine."  
  
"Did you tell Gai everything about the situation?" Kurenai turned her red eyes over toward Asuma who grunted in confirmation.  
  
"Yeah it was really hard too, apparently he had already met 'Akuri' and they didn't get along to well." Asuma watched as Iruka's face became confused.  
  
"I am sorry if this seems rude................" Iruka looked over at Asuma confused as he tried to think very hard, "but...............have we met before?"  
  
Immediately Kurenai and Asuma exchanged shocked glances.  
  
"I am Asuma....................." The bearded man stated in hesitation trying to see if Iruka would remember his name.  
  
"Iruka!" Kakashi busted through the door followed quickly by Gai.  
  
"Kakashi?" Iruka sat up quickly to be pulled into a tight embrace by the panting silver haired jonin.  
  
"Iruka I have been given the news of your predicament! I do not blame you for your actions the other day!" Gai spoke shaking his fist in the air. "I shall let you know that I will be here for you!"  
  
"What happened? Are you okay?" Kakashi released the embrace but quickly glanced over the smaller body.  
  
"I-I..............." Iruka looked around at everyone.  
  
"Why on earth did you leave the house? What in your right mind told you to go! What if something worse happened to you! What if you were attacked? What would you do then? You don't have any chakra Iruka!" Kakashi glared at the smaller boy with his one eye.  
  
He needed answers...............he wanted answers and he wanted them now.  
  
"We will be out in the hall..............." Asuma muttered pulling a reluctant Kurenai and Gai with him.  
  
"Iruka I want you to tell me everything! And be honest I mean everything!" Kakashi's head was spinning. Out of nowhere Gai pops up and tells him that Iruka had blacked out and that Kurenai had taken the smaller boy to her house. What bothered them the most was the fact that Iruka had blacked out at the memorial tablet.  
  
Why was he there to begin with?  
  
"I left because someone keeps telling me to." Iruka looked up at Kakashi with tears in his eyes. He couldn't help it, he made Kakashi angry at him.  
  
"Who?" Kakashi loosened his grip on the young chunin's arms.  
  
"This child." Iruka looked back down, "It is right though, I should leave, I hurt and ruin everyone around me, I ruin their lives."  
  
"Who is this child? Why do you think that Iruka?" Kakashi closed his eyes, he needed to calm himself down.  
  
"The child is me but isn't or something like that...........He is confusing and..............his green eyes are.....................evil." Iruka began to tremble remembering the child in his head and everything it said.  
  
"What do you mean Iruka? Is this part of the jutsu?" Kakashi looked over at Iruka confused as the young chunin began to shake his head.  
  
"I................I................I don't know anymore! It is like it has always been there! Like it really is a part of me." Iruka's head began to hurt; everything was just too confusing! Was this really happening? Could it be some kind of dream?  
  
"Iruka calm down. Think. Have you seen this child? Did this kid show you the jutsu or perform it on you?" Kakashi grabbed Iruka's hands; this child had to be a part of the jutsu. He needed to get Hiashi and tell him.  
  
"No nothing like that." Iruka shook his head trying to think, but a strange image ran through his head. "You."  
  
"Me? I what? What is it Iruka?" Kakashi began to let the worry take over his thoughts. He couldn't lose Iruka, not after everything that they have been through.  
  
"You showed me the jutsu. It was a dream I think. But you told me to do it so I did." Iruka closed his eyes as he remembered the dream; "You told me to reach for the stars."  
  
"What?" Kakashi got up. Iruka learned the jutsu in a dream through him? What did he do to Iruka before hand? Was there something he was missing?  
  
"I-I don't know Kakashi! It is really confusing! I don't know anymore..................." Iruka furrowed his eyebrows, as he got frustrated at himself. He wasn't helping anyone by not knowing the facts.  
  
"It is okay Iruka." Kakashi pulled the confused boy into a tight embrace as he looked around.  
  
He needed to find Hiashi and find him quick.  
  
"I will be right back okay?" Kakashi looked at the smaller form nodded. He needed to get Hiashi but taking Iruka with him might strain the boy's body.  
  
Kakashi quickly went to the hallway to see Kurenai, Gai, and Asuma waiting for him.  
  
"Well? He tell you anything?" Kurenai sighed; she was obviously tired.  
  
"He doesn't remember anything about today but......................" Kakashi glanced over at all of them. "He seems to be experiencing strange hallucinations in his mind and they are affecting him greatly.............I am going to find Hiashi now."  
  
"You might also want to tell him that Iruka has a temporary case of amnesia including me in it." Asuma sighed not realizing how deep his words hit Kakashi.  
  
"What do you mean?" Kakashi stalled for a moment.  
  
"I just meant he doesn't know what happened to him nor does he recognize me." Asuma sighed taking another puff of his cigarette.  
  
"He didn't recognize you? What about you Kurenai?" Kakashi glanced back at the tied woman.  
  
"He seemed to know me just fine maybe it is just a temporary side effect." Kurenai mumbled before yawning. She really was worried about Iruka but for some reason she couldn't control the fact that she needed sleep.  
  
"Okay." Kakashi nodded quickly adding to the list of things he had to tell Hiashi immediately.  
  
With that the jonin disappeared in a cloud of smoke.  
  
"Hn." Asuma hummed to himself as he opened the door to Kurenai's room to see a sleeping boy on top of all the blankets.  
  
"I have a bad feeling Asuma." Kurenai mumbled to her lover.  
  
"You think this is all part of the jutsu?" Gai asked growing uncharacteristically worried.  
  
"I can probably guess but only Kakashi and Hiashi know." Asuma mumbled sitting in the chair beside Iruka's bed.  
  
"Call me when he wakes up, I am going to talk to my team." Kurenai waited until both men nodded before she left.  
  
"You want to play shogi?" Asuma glanced over at Gai.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"HIASHI!" Kakashi yelled as he invited himself into the Hyuga house.  
  
"HIASHI!" He tried to sense if anyone was home......................no one.  
  
"Dang it." He cursed himself as he ran out of the window. He needed to find Hiashi.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Hn?" Iruka opened his eyes. Where was he? And when did he leave his bed?  
  
"Check mate." Asuma sighed as he won for the umpteenth time.  
  
"Darn you Asuma! Your youth has made you a worthy opponent in such a game as shogi!" Gai shook his fist as Asuma began to set up the game again.  
  
"Hey you know it is impolite to smoke in people's houses?" Iruka quickly covered his mouth as Asuma and Gai glanced at him.  
  
Why did he just say that! He obviously wasn't even in his own house and didn't know the spiky black-haired man so what right did he have to lecture him.  
  
"You recognize me yet?" Asuma raised an eyebrow at the younger form.  
  
"Oh Iruka! You are up and healthy!" Gai shouted happily.  
  
"Umm.............no I don't know you, sorry. But you are obviously a friend of Gai." Iruka smiled childishly as Asuma sighed.  
  
"Kurenai-sensei! I am leaving to set up the party now!" All the guys looked at the door as they heard Hinata yell and then leave.  
  
"Hai Hai." Kurenai sighed as she walked into the room and saw Iruka sitting up. "You two were supposed to call me when he woke up!"  
  
"Oh this is your house?" Iruka looked around the room, no wonder he didn't recognize anything he had never been here before.  
  
"Iruka you have been here over twenty times................." Kurenai glanced at the boy confused.  
  
"No...........I think I would remember this place if I had." Iruka nodded to himself as he took in the strange decorations. Kurenai had a knack for torture devices it seemed.  
  
"Hey is Hinata-chan going to the same party as Lee-kun?" Gai looked enthused.  
  
"Yeah she is helping set it up and I swear you call Hinata 'chan' one more time I will................"  
  
"The party!" Iruka interrupted Kurenai's threat as he thought about how he was invited with Naruto. "Oh! It hasn't started yet has it?"  
  
"No it doesn't start until sunset..............about an hour." Kurenai looked at Iruka confused. "What? Are you going?"  
  
"Yeah! Ino-chan invited Naruto-kun and me! They said it would be really fun!" Iruka now looked like a little boy about to receive a present.  
  
"I don't think you can go........" Asuma faded off. "You are um.........sick remember?"  
  
"No I feel great! Please! Can I go?" Iruka gave them the best puppy eyes he could come up with; he really wanted to go!  
  
Though something in the back of his mind was nagging him to not go and wait for someone to return but he couldn't remember whom exactly.  
  
"I think we should wait for............."  
  
"Ah! The exuberance of youth! He is feeling fine and healthy! Maybe even hanging out with the small students could help his memory!" Gai smiled at the small boy.  
  
"If someone interrupts me one more time I'll................."  
  
"I see a point to that Gai. Maybe if Iruka sees his old students it could help with his memory." Asuma nodded not noticing the glare coming from Kurenai.  
  
"Iruka I must know what it feels to be the epitome of adolescence once more after experiencing the adult life!" Gai got on his knees in front of Iruka like an expectant student.  
  
"Huh?" Iruka had no idea what Gai was talking about...............he was...........he was...........then it hit Iruka.  
  
He was a twenty three year old man sent back to his childhood body experiencing strange dreams and harsh pains with in his body. He wasn't normal anymore. How could he have so easily forgot everything that has happened to him in the past few days? Was there something else wrong? Was there something he was missing?  
  
Asuma noticed the confused facial features appear on Iruka before he got up and wapped Gai on the head.  
  
"You can ask him after they find a cure you idiot." Asuma then looked at the smaller boy, "....and they will find one Iruka."  
  
Iruka smiled over at the smoking man, who ever he was he was right. He had to have full faith in the Hokage and Rei. They would find a cure.  
  
"Sorry I forgot my bag in here-uh!" Hinata opened the door and stopped when she noticed everyone was still in Kurenai's room. "Oh sorry!"  
  
"No it's okay Hinata." Kurenai smiled as Hinata bowed apologetically and grabbed her bed before she noticed the little boy on the bed was sitting up.  
  
"Oh! You are awake!" She smiled and did a small bow towards Iruka, "Are you feeling better?"  
  
"Hai, thank you!" Iruka smiled as Hinata blushed as the cute sight before her. This had to be the cutest boy she had ever seen.  
  
"Ah-ah gomen! I am Hinata." She smiled as she looked over at Asuma and Gai who were laughing to themselves.  
  
"Nice to meet you I am Akuri." Iruka smiled, he liked how he could be friends like this with his old students.  
  
"Hinata why don't you take Akuri with you to the party right now, he was going to go with Naruto but since he is here with.........."  
  
"Naruto!" Hinata blushed and looked back at Iruka, oh how fate is nice. Two hot guys with her at the party................  
  
"Hinata.............Hinata...............Hinata!" Kurenai then bopped the drooling teen on the head. "Snap out of it!"  
  
"Oh! Gomen Sensei! Come on Akuri-kun I am already late!" Hinata blushed before she left the room.  
  
"Awww How come Iruka gets the cute young girls?" Asuma joked before Kurenai hit him on the head.  
  
"I should have you know I used to be there sensei you pervert!" Iruka glared at the bearded man, how crude!  
  
"Iruka be very careful and if you feel sick or if anything happens leave okay." Kurenai stated more like a threat than a worry.  
  
"Hia! I promise!" And with that Iruka ran out of the room to catch up with Hinata.  
  
"I keep forgetting he doesn't remember me." Asuma sighed and then looked over at Gai who was smiling.  
  
"Lee shall be the life of that party!" He stated in his 'good guy' pose.  
  
"Baka." Kurenai sighed at the two idiots she was left with.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"He and the Hokage are returning tonight?" Kakashi glared at the chunin in the front desk.  
  
Dang it! Hiashi had left right after they saw each other in the morning. He wouldn't be back for a few hours and he would be returning with the Hokage and Rei....................wait! Did that mean that they found a cure? Had they really found one and so they were returning?  
  
"Kakashi stop bothering people......" Kakashi's thoughts were quickly interrupted as Gemna walked up to him.  
  
"Shut up Gemna." Kakashi grinned under his mask as Gemna glared at him.  
  
"Is that anyway to treat the person who is supposed to get you?" Gemna pouted with the straw in his mouth.  
  
"Get me?" Kakashi sighed; this wasn't the time for a game or assignment he wanted to get back to Iruka.  
  
"Hai, Hokage wants you to meet them so they can talk to you as they come back to the village." Gemna didn't notice how Kakashi paused for a moment.  
  
"Hokage?" Kakashi was surprised, was this good or bad?  
  
He had a bad feeling.  
  
"Immediately." As Gemna spoke he left being quickly followed by the silver haired jonin.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Akuri-kun! I knew you would come!" Ino shouted as she saw Hinata and Iruka walk up.  
  
"Oh! Ino I didn't know you knew Asuma-sensei's cousin!" Hinata smiled as both Ino and Sakura glanced at her confused.  
  
"No Sakura told me that Kakashi said that he was his nephew or something..........." Ino stopped and looked over at Iruka who wasn't even paying attention to them but to the decorations for the party.  
  
"Maybe Asuma and Kakashi are related somehow?" Sakura tried to guess.  
  
"This is sooo cool!" Iruka laughed causing the girls to forget what they were doing and look at him.  
  
This was the first real kid's party Iruka had ever been to. Sure when he was a kid he was invited to a party every once in a while but he wasn't that popular and he would never go. It was amazing to him how the decorations made Ino's back yard look more like an dance club than a yard. The decorations were definitely better than any of the 'boring grown up' parties he had ever been to.  
  
It looked exciting.  
  
"Akuri you are too cute." Ino laughed.  
  
"Hey would you mind helping us out?" Sakura smiled brightly.  
  
"Yeah sure, what do you got?" Iruka walked with Sakura as she brought him to a table.  
  
"Will you organize our snack table?" Sakura pointed to a small table piled with bags of candy and junk food. Hey there weren't going to be any parents there so why would they have to be healthy?  
  
Iruka saw the candy on the table.  
  
"Sure!" He smiled and started to organize it every once in a while eating a piece of candy.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Oi! Akuri you could have told me you would be here already!" Naruto waved as Shikamaru and Chouji followed him.  
  
"Sorry Naruto-kun! I-uh..............ran into Hinata-chan so I came early!" Iruka smiled as Naruto laughed.  
  
"Yo, Akuri-kun." Choji laughed as he watched the smaller boy shove a few pieces of candy in his mouth. "You like candy?"  
  
Iruka smiled as he felt like he was eternal bliss. All of the flavors mixing in his mouth made him forget any problems going on around him.  
  
"Kyah! Sasuke you came!" Iruka quickly glanced around to see Sasuke walking into the back yard.  
  
Ino, Sakura, and Tenten were immediately at his side talking.  
  
"Hmph." Naruto snorted as he noticed the pool that Sasuke was now walking by. And the pool was full of water.............and Sasuke wouldn't have any room to move because of the girls latched onto him.............  
  
Naruto grinned evilly before he vanished.  
  
"Great what is he up to?" Shikamaru sighed and then looked at the new guy. "So Akuri, right?"  
  
"Hai." Iruka smiled as he put in another piece of candy.  
  
"What are you doing here in Kona..................."  
  
"ACK!!!!"  
  
*splash*  
  
"Dobe."  
  
The guys turned to see Sasuke standing over the pool and glaring at a now soaking wet and swimming Naruto.  
  
"Jerk!" Naruto shouted glaring at the Uchiha.  
  
"Next time try to be a little more quiet." Sasuke smirked at the soaked blonde. "Unless that is actually all of the stealth you have, then I would suggest that you train."  
  
"Leave Sasuke alone Naruto!" Sakura yelled at the now mumbling blonde as he got out of the pool.  
  
"Sasuke you are so cool!" Ino had hearts in her eyes as she began to follow Sasuke again.  
  
Iruka glared, he thought that maybe there was something going on between the two teens.............but if so then why................  
  
"HINATA-CHAN!!!" Everyone watched as Kiba and Shino landed into the backyard.  
  
"You guys made it!" Hinata blushed as she ran over to be with her team.  
  
"Yeah we went over to Kurenai-sensei's house to see if that dude was still...............Hey! You!! Are you okay?" Kiba finally saw Iruka standing in between Choji and Shikamaru both gave Kiba a bored glare.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru sighed as the other three began to walk over to him.  
  
"I wasn't talking to you! I was talking to um............him." Kiba smiled as he pointed at Iruka who was taking some more candy out of one of the bags.  
  
"His name is Akuri-kun! Kiba........." Hinata blushed.  
  
"Well you feeling better Akuri?" Kiba smiled really big as a dog jumped out of his jacket.  
  
"Yes thank you, but I have no idea what you are talking about." Iruka smiled, what should he be feeling bad about? That the kids knew about anyway?  
  
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"  
  
Everyone looked down to see Akamaru growling at Iruka.  
  
"Dang it Akamaru what is wrong now?" Kiba growled back at his dog who barked.  
  
"What do you mean? This is Akuri! A friend!" Kiba argued back.  
  
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."  
  
"Well I don't know why he forgot either maybe he hit his head!" Kiba growled back as everyone looked at each other confused. Was he really talking to Akamaru or with himself?  
  
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"  
  
"Well if you are going to act that way go sit by the fence for the rest of the party." Kiba pointed to the fence as Akamaru still growled and walked over to it.  
  
Everyone stared at him surprised, they didn't know whether to laugh because Kiba was talking to his dog again or to be in awe that Kiba actually punished Akamaru.  
  
"Heh. Sorry he has been acting funny today." Kiba smiled until he noticed that Iruka wasn't in front of him anymore.  
  
"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"  
  
Everyone turned to see the boy jump off of a tree branch and into the pool causing a large splash.  
  
"Akuri!" All the girls shouted as they ran over to the pool.  
  
"Was that Akuri?" Naruto looked out from the bottom of a towel he was using to dry off.  
  
"Hahahahaha." Iruka laughed as he swam in the water, his cheeks were rosy showing he was now officially hyper.  
  
"Ugh." Everyone turned to see Neji standing on the other side of the pool, soaking wet. He was too close to the pool when Iruka jumped in.  
  
"Neji-niisan!" Hinata stammered at the sight of her wet cousin.  
  
"Come on in the water is fine!" Iruka laughed, he had never had so much fun before.  
  
"Akuri! You need to get out of the pool! You could get sick!" Ino yelled at the younger boy.  
  
"You got Neji wet!" Naruto laughed as the milky-eyed boy glared him at.  
  
"Here let me help you." Sakura offered and Iruka quickly grabbed her hand with a smirk.  
  
"Akuri no!" Ino glared at him.  
  
*splash*  
  
"Hahahaha" Iruka laughed as Sakura swam up.  
  
"Ugh!" She glared at the boy. "Akuri this is my favorite dress! Why did you do that?"  
  
Iruka stopped and looked at the glaring pink-haired girl.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Akuri! You little brat you are going to ruin the party!" Ino shouted as he began to back up to a side of the pool.  
  
"You should apologize to Neji and Sakura!" Tenten yelled.  
  
"He is just having fun guys." Naruto yelled at the girls.  
  
"This is supposed to be a party not baby sitting." Ino muttered.  
  
"So troublesome." Shikamaru sighed as Iruka pulled himself out of the pool panting, something wasn't right.  
  
"Just go home Akuri!" Ino yelled from across the yard.  
  
"I can't believe you." Sakura glared as she got out of the pool.  
  
"He was just playing guys." Naruto defended Iruka.  
  
"Well tell him to play somewhere else!" Tenten yelled.  
  
Iruka put his hand over his heart. Something wasn't right. Something was wrong, wrong with him.  
  
He looked around and noticed that everyone was yelling now. Was it his fault? What was going on? He couldn't hear anything.  
  
Look at all the pain you are causing.  
  
All your fault.  
  
Too bad.........  
  
Maybe if you left..........  
  
Yeah if you would leave............  
  
Then they would all be happy. They wouldn't fight or argue............  
  
If you were me...............  
  
Leave Iruka!  
  
Leave!  
  
Iruka gasped as he fell over. He looked around he was in the woods now, he didn't know where but he was definitely in the woods now.  
  
He jumped back up and began to run again tears filling his eyes. He was going to leave.  
  
Leave so everyone would be happy..................  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Kakashi." The Hokage nodded as he saw the jonin come running and join in their pace of going back to the village.  
  
"What is it?" Kakashi wanted to get straight to the point.  
  
"I think Rei would be better at explaining this." With that Rei and Hokage quickly switched spots.  
  
"We may have found something.............." Rei looked over at Kakashi.  
  
"But?" Kakashi watched her.  
  
"What has he been experiencing?" Rei glanced away from the silver haired jonin.  
  
"Why? What is it?" Kakashi growled at her; he wanted to know.  
  
"Depending on what he has experienced..........and other things.........there is a slight chance that it won't work.................." Rei said solemnly.  
  
"And?" Kakashi started to hate the fact that he would sense if a person was finished or not.  
  
"And this was the only cure." Rei looked in his eyes sadly.  
  
There wasn't much hope left..............  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Akuri?" Hinata looked around for the small boy causing everyone to stop.  
  
"What?" They all began to look around and noticed that he was gone.  
  
"That is weird I didn't even sense him leave?" Sasuke glared around.  
  
"Akamaru! Did you see him leave?" Kiba called his dog to him but it shook his head.  
  
"I don't even sense him near here........" Shino mumbled quietly as everyone began to worry.  
  
"This is your fault Ino! You yelled at him!" Naruto glared at the girls who looked upset.  
  
"Enough fighting! Split into teams of two and find him, we will raise our chakra if we find him." Shikamaru sighed, once again making everyone realize why he is the only chunin in the bunch.  
  
And they were off.  
  
"Kiba you go that way with Akamaru I will go this way." Neji shouted as he leapt form tree branch to tree branch. He and Kiba decided to search the woods.  
  
"Akamaru do you smell him yet?" Kiba followed his puppy companion closely as the dog sniffed the air.  
  
"Byakugen!" Neji shouted as he looked around through all of the trees.  
  
He saw Kiba and Akamaru running quickly in the left area of the forest. He tightened his glare to look deeper and saw something strange. It was a small chakra flow but it was stopped.............something was strange.  
  
Neji's whole body filled with shivers as he quickly went to the odd form.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"Argh!" Iruka fell again grasping his head. His whole body hurt. Something was happening.  
  
He quickly opened his eyes and tried to move but the pain was unbearable. He began to crawl as a figure landed behind him.  
  
"Akuri?" Neji watched to smaller form stop and then look at him. It looked like he was crying and that something was wrong.  
  
Iruka began to crawl backwards.  
  
But what Neji wanted to know was where was his chakra? And how could he have gotten this deep in the forest without using chakra? He had to have a special skill but that still didn't explain...................  
  
"Where is your chakra? What are you? Better yet who are you and why have you come to our village?" Neji glared down at Iruka who was now backed up into a tree.  
  
"Uhhhh.................." Iruka looked around; the forest surrounded them. Why did he run in so deep? No one will be able to find them for a few hours.  
  
"Are you a ninja? Your skills are beyond even mine yet you have no chakra." Neji pulled another kunai out of his holster, he was going to find out why this intruder was here. The boys stealth was amazing unless that had to deal with the fact of his chakra.  
  
"Neji!!!!!!!! Have you found Akuri yet?!!!!! We need to get back to the party!!!!!" Iruka looked to his left, Kiba was in the woods too. This was his chance.  
  
"Kib!!!!!!" A hand interrupted Iruka's shout and a kunai at his throat.  
  
"Now tell me...............what are you doing here." Neji let the cold steel of his kunai slowly touch Iruka's throat.  
  
"Mph!" Iruka shut his eyes as he began to tremble again. The pain was coming back.  
  
Neji pulled his hand away from the boy's mouth as he noticed he was crying again. What was going on? The air around them was now very cold..................like.................like something was definitely wrong.  
  
"Please go away!" Iruka clench his chest with his hands and the pain began to consume him again.  
  
Neji took a step back. Something was definitely wrong.  
  
"Argh!" Iruka screamed as a burst of chakra was sent out of his body throwing Neji backwards.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Iruka opened his eyes.  
  
Darkness  
  
"Iruka why do you try and fight me?"  
  
He turned around to face the green-eyed child.  
  
"But-but............"  
  
The child smiled and placed his finger on Iruka's trembling lips.  
  
"You are not wanted Iruka you can see that cant you?" The child grinned evilly as Iruka nodded; tears in his eyes.  
  
"Are you going to leave now?" The child pulled his finger away with a knowing grin.  
  
"Y-yes." Iruka sighed as the child began to laugh evilly.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
Neji pulled himself up and looked at the trembling body that was now over twenty yards away from him.  
  
"Akuri!" Neji yelled, as the form seemed to stop all of its movements.  
  
"Neji was that you!" Kiba came running up to his friend. "What is wrong? Why did you release so much chakra?"  
  
"It........wasn't.............me............" Neji gasped out, he definitely had to have some broken ribs now.  
  
Kiba's eyes went wide as he looked at the lifeless from across from them.  
  
"Guys!" Naruto appeared followed quickly by several more of the genins.  
  
"Help Akuri!" Kiba yelled as everyone noticed the small from.  
  
"No! Get away!" Neji ran up and stopped all of them.  
  
"Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Everyone jumped as the small form screamed and this time released a larger amount of chakra knocking everyone away.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^  
  
"There is was again! Speed up!" The Hokage ordered his team as they were now at top notch running into the village of Konoha. They could feel the strange disturbance in chakra from fifty miles away.  
  
"Find that source now!" Saidaime ordered as everyone immediately disappeared.  
  
He had a very bad feeling about this..............  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^TBC  
  
OMG!!!!!! I am sooooooooooo sorry!!!! It is two days late!!!! I am a horrible person!!!! But was it worth the wait? Maybe? Well I was going to post it Sunday but it was my birthday and well............I am seventeen lol thanks for all you wished me and my twin a happy one! And then I was going to post it yesterday but I had two teeth pulled and I wouldn't stop bleeding and I got sick so my mom wouldn't let me leave my bed.............*sigh* I really was!  
  
K-chan: *sighs* I am such a horrible person!  
  
P-sama: do you start all your author notes like that?  
  
K-chan: oh wait no you are worse!  
  
P-sama: Why?  
  
K-chan: Anyone who read your last chapter will agree! (you know!)  
  
P-sama: Yeah whatever! So what if I killed a character off....................not my problem. *smirks*  
  
K-chan: so please read and review! This was the hardest chapter in the world to write! And it was really long so I had to shorten it too!!! But tell me how you liked it please!  
  
(ps: did you guys like that jokes ff? I know I am a bit corny but it was my inspiration while I wrote this chapter!)  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^v^ 


	6. Green Eyes

Agh! I am soooooooooo sorry that it took so long to update! Gomen!  
  
gets on knees puts index fingers together and on the floor bowing with forehead touching my hands  
  
I AM SO SORRY! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!  
  
Okay so I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and don't forget to review!  
  
Disclaimer: (b/c apparently I am supposed to put these on every chapter?) I DO NOT OWN NARUTO!  
  
v  
  
"All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle."  
-Francis of Assissi  
  
v  
  
**Forbidden Jutsu chapter six: Green Eyes  
**  
v  
  
Kakashi cursed himself as he ran as fast as he could through the forest in the direction of the large blast. He had a bad feeling.  
  
_Iruka.................  
_  
"What happened here!" Kakashi stopped as he came to a large clearing, no not a clearing but an area where all the trees had been pushed with so much pressure that they were lying on the ground.  
  
"Hokage-sama it might not be safe yet!" An ANBU bowed as the Hokage landed being followed by an armed Hiashi and Rei.  
  
"What do you think has happened here?" Hokage narrowed his eyes as the ANBU that bowed again apologetically.  
  
"There are a group of kids in the middle, several genin, a chunin, and someone we haven't been able to identify yet." The ANBU looked up to the see Hokage was gone and heading towards the middle of the area.  
  
"Was it an attack?" He asked the nearest ANBU squad leader.  
  
"No, it doesn't seem to have been.......but..........."  
  
"But?" The Hokage rose and eyebrow as he looked over at the silver-haired jonin who was now running over to the kids lying on the ground.  
  
Kakashi passed by all the parents who were looking over their unconscious children. He quickly glanced around noticing a small figure a good twenty feet away.  
  
_Iruka........_  
  
"All we know is apparently the kids were supposed to be having a party but none of the parents know why the kids are out here in the woods......." An ANBU with a hawk mask watched as Kakashi began to check Iruka's body for wounds or anything. "Do you know who that child is?"  
  
"Yes." Was the Hokage's only reply, as he appeared right beside Kakashi.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"I don't know..............but.........." Kakashi ran his hand through the small boy's hair. Something about Iruka wasn't right........it didn't feel right.  
  
"He has changed." The Hokage noted grimly before turning around to see Hinata begin to sit up with Hiashi's help.  
  
"D-domo." Hinata tried opening her eyes as she held her head.  
  
"Hinata do you know what happened here?" Hiashi watched as her daughter looked up at him and then looked around confused before she noticed Akuri's body near Kakashi.  
  
"I-it was him." She looked around at all of the commotion confused.  
  
"Did he attack you?" Hiashi watched as Rei walked over and began to inspect Iruka.  
  
"Iie....no he....he......was hurting." Hinata looked at the ground glancing over at her friends.  
  
"Hurting? In what way?" Hokage was beside her now causing Hinata to get bit more uncomfortable as she stared at the ground. But she had to tell them the answers....they wanted to know.  
  
"I-I don't know.....he ran away from the party so we searched for him and then.......Neji found him so we came over here and......" Hinata's eyes quickly shot up as she looked over at Neji in front of her.  
  
"Neji nii-san!" She quickly crawled over to his passed out form. Neji had blocked most of the burst from hitting her. "H-he protected me from the blast......" Hinata smiled as she brushed Neji's hair out of his face.  
  
"Where did the blast come from?" Hiashi watched as Hinata started to look over Neji's body.  
  
"H-he....Akuri-san.....was upset and then it just came out......" Hinata looked down as if trying to remember. "He was in pain....."  
  
"Hinata I am going to need to talk to you later....don't share any information with anyone else okay?" Hokage sighed as she nodded. This did not look good. "EVERYONE! TAKE THESE CHILDREN TO THE HOSPITAL!" He shouted before looking over at Kakashi.  
  
"Bring Iruka with you to my office." With that he vanished into a cloud of smoke.  
  
"Hinata go to the hospital with everyone else." Hiashi stood up as she nodded quietly.  
  
"Kakashi-san we need to take Iruka now." Rei helped Kakashi pick the small form up into his arms before they both vanished.  
  
v  
  
"His chakra is flowing smoothly now............but" Hiashi turned to the elder man who was pacing at the front of his desk.  
  
"It is the level of the chakra that is bothering you." Hokage nodded with his statement. It had been bothering him since he got to the scene..............it was too large.......even for the chunin sensei.  
  
"Can you still change him back?" Kakashi finally spoke up; he decided to let the two elder men inspect the form before he asked.  
  
"Well............we don't know." Rei decided to answer the question as she ran her hands through Iruka's hair. "The problem is we didn't get too much information but...............I just don't know..........."  
  
"Wait? But didn't you find the scroll?" Kakashi looked over the three people in the room.......it was uncomfortably silent.  
  
"Yes and no Kakashi." Hokage pulled out his pipe. "We did find the scroll and we did go through it with the permission of the village leader, but the only surviving material of the scroll was only one way to turn Iruka back........the rest was ripped out."  
  
"Ripped out?" Kakashi stared over at the shorter old man puzzled.  
  
"It turned out that not too long ago the village was attacked by some ninjas, no one could tell what village they were from but that they took a lot of the forbidden scrolls and that one had been fought over. The village only managed to save that part......."  
  
"Well one is really all we need.........isn't it?" Kakashi noticed how Rei tensed up.  
  
"We ran into the guy who did this............."  
  
"What?" Kakashi stood up as Rei mumbled.  
  
"We ran into the rogue nin who did this.........this was done to Iruka........the technique we found was to undo the jutsu if it was done to yourself not to you by someone else......." Rei looked over at Hokage who was now looking at the ground.  
  
"Who was he? Why didn't you ask him? Torture it out of him? Why....."  
  
"He was paid to do it by one of our many enemies Kakashi................all we could get out of him before he killed himself was that it back fired." Hokage spat out causing the silver-haired jonin to look at him surprised.  
  
"Backfired?"  
  
"Iruka wasn't the only target............the man was targeting the whole village........."  
  
"But then why only Iruka?" Kakashi looked over to Hiashi who was watching the door.  
  
"He apparently had to be in the center of the village............." Hokage waited for it to register in Kakashi's mind.  
  
Iruka's apartment was the closest thing to the center of the village that wouldn't have ninja's crawling all over it.  
  
"He was interrupted by something or someone before he could spread the jutsu's limits. So the farthest it got was Iruka." Hokage let out a breath of smoke as he looked up at Kakashi.  
  
"Can we still try with just the one?" Kakashi felt hopeless and angry...........not only did this happen to Iruka but it was some sort of an accident? By an enemy ninja.  
  
"We don't know what would happen or even what the side effects would be.......we need to wait for Iruka to wake up..................and see.............." Hokage sat down in his chair as Rei rubbed the tears out of her eyes.  
  
She couldn't help but feel that she didn't try hard enough..........she should have tried harder............investigated the nin a lot more. She couldn't even rescue the one nin that was closest to being a brother to her.................she couldn't even rescue him for his lover's sake.  
  
But she could try.  
  
"Wait? What if it is too late! What if he has fully changed by then?" Kakashi glared over at the older man. He expected him to wait? Wait!  
  
"Kakashi-san that is a chance you are going to have to take. If we did it while he was unconscious there is a chance we could kick the real Iruka out of reality forever........." Rei looked over at the angry jonin. "And that is something that I would hate myself forever for."  
  
"Hn." Kakashi relaxed a little as Rei spoke. She was right, why take the chance of losing him permanently. Though that is was a chance either way..........  
  
"Has Iruka ever mentioned anything about another him? Maybe a voice in his head or an illusion that he sees?" Hiashi spoke up after a few minutes of silence.  
  
"True! Part of the scroll mentioned some of the side effects people had before they lost themselves.........." Rei mumbled off as Kakashi stood up.  
  
"Yes he did..........." Kakashi couldn't help but get a bad feeling. "This child that was confusing him............all I know is that he had evil green eyes or something like that............."  
  
"I see." Hokage let out a puff of smoke before he looked at the smaller form. "You said he was confusing Iruka............how?"  
  
Kakashi thought for a moment, "I think that the child told Iruka that he was ruining everyone's lives, Iruka kept leaving me because he thought that he was bothering me...............he cried........" Kakashi looked over at the smaller boy, "No matter what I told Iruka even as an adult he always believed he was holding people back..........keeping them from accomplishing things............"  
  
"Hm...........that does sound like him." Hokage nodded sadly. "He had..........has no self esteem even after you two began to court. I always hoped it would change."  
  
"If Iruka felt that way before hand then............." Hiashi paused not knowing if to continue or not. "..............wouldn't it be easier for this 'child' to take control?"  
  
"No............I have faith in Iruka..........." Kakashi looked down at the motionless form. "He wouldn't leave me or Naruto behind."  
  
v  
  
"And then he just ran away?" Hokage was in the middle of questioning all of the children that were at the party.................minus Neji who was still out cold, not only did he block most of the blast from hitting Hinata, he was also too close to Iruka when it shot out. And he had already earned injuries from the first blast.  
  
It had been two days.  
  
"Yeah, he ran away after all of the girls started to yell at him." Naruto stated as most of the girls sighed. They felt really bad..........they didn't mean to get him hurt.  
  
"I see............." Hokage scratched his head as the genin and Shikamaru (chunin) began to talk among themselves.  
  
"Hokage-sama!" He turned to his side as an Anbu appeared beside him.  
  
"Hai?"  
  
"Hyuga Neji has woken up." The Anbu bowed and then disappeared as Hokage nodded.  
  
"Neji is awake!" Lee grinned as Tenten sighed in relief.  
  
"Yes but I would like to ask him some questions before you all visited him if you don't mind." Hokage smirked as all the kids smiled and nodded.  
  
They were and would always be the kids, the future of Konoha, in Hokage's mind.  
  
v  
  
"How are you feeling Neji?" The elder man smiled at the young man in the bed.  
  
"I feel well enough." Neji looked over at the Hokage, "I would like to leave now."  
  
"That is not my decision but the nurses." Hokage laughed, "I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me."  
  
"About Akuri right?" Neji looked over to the window as some birds flew by. (lol couldn't help myself)  
  
"Hai."  
  
v  
  
"He is very perceptive isn't he Hiashi." Hokage glared out of the window as he watched some rain clouds come in.  
  
"He is just like his father." Hiashi whispered silently looking down on Iruka's motionless form on the bed.  
  
"He told me that he tried to interrogate Iruka because he thought he was a spy. He mentioned that it took him a while to see that he was looking at Iruka with his Byukugan because he had no chakra." Hokage smiled as a bird flew by his window and it began to thunder. "He wants to see 'Akuri' when he is allowed out of the hospital."  
  
"Why?" Hiashi looked up at the grinning old man.  
  
"Because he intrigues him."  
  
"Hey where is Kakashi-san? I thought it would be impossible to make him leave Iruka's side." Rei walked into the room followed by Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai.  
  
"I made him take a walk." Hokage smiled as he turned around and greeted the three jonin. "I believe Rei told you why I have called you three."  
  
"Yes but shouldn't we wait for Kaka............." Gai stopped as he watched the small boy in the bed sit up holding on to his head.  
  
"Ugh.........." Akuri tried to sit up but it hurt too much.  
  
"Iruka you are awake!" Kurenai smiled until Akuri looked up at her confused.  
  
His green eyes looking over the room ending on a now shocked Hokage.  
  
"His eyes..........." Rei gasped as the small form looked over at Hiashi.  
  
"Um...............hello." The small boy tried to wave but stop when pain shot through his arm. "Ow!"  
  
"Iruka you shouldn't move! Your body's chakra is flowing again and we don't know if you got injured from the blast." Rei walked over and tried to make the boy lay back down.  
  
"Iruka? Chakra? Blast? What are you talking about miss?" Akuri sat up and pushed her away as he hissed in pain.  
  
"I see." Hokage looked over at the shocked and confused expressions over the three jonin sensei's faces. "I am afraid that............."  
  
"Hokage-sama I was wondering..............." Neji stopped as he looked around the office. What was with everyone's faces? Why was Gai sensei there? Why was Hiashi-sama there? Why was Akuri smiling at him? And did he always have green eyes?  
  
"Neji-kun!" Akuri smiled when he saw a familiar face but then he stopped. How did he know Neji? Why was he familiar? He shook his head and looked back up to see everyone looked even more surprised now.  
  
"What is your name?" Hokage stopped and looked over at the small boy. If he could still remember Neji maybe there was a chance.  
  
"Akuri." The boy answered quickly before scratching his head. That was his name right? But then why didn't he have any other names? No last name?  
  
"How old are you?" Hokage couldn't help but get nervous.  
  
"I don't know." Akuri looked down and then back at Neji. "Do you know?" Maybe the boy with milky eyes knew. He seemed familiar enough maybe he knew him.  
  
"Uh........" Neji looked over at Gai to see if he should answer but Gai's face was more serious than Neji had ever seen before. He didn't know what to say.  
  
"How do you know Neji?" Hokage wanted to see what the boy knew.  
  
"I don't know.......h-he seemed familiar..........and when I saw him the first thing I thought of was Neji." Akuri watched as Neji looked around confused.  
  
"I see........does anyone else in here seem familiar?" Hokage pointed over at everyone motioning for the small boy to look at them.  
  
"............" Akuri looked at them, something seemed to be bothering the older people and he didn't know what it was. "No."  
  
"What about the names Naruto or Kakashi?" Hokage surely thought that the boy wouldn't have forgotten two of the most important people in Iruka's lives..........but then that wouldn't explain why he remembered Neji.  
  
"No." Akuri shook his head after he had thought about it. Should he have known those names?  
  
v  
  
Kakashi sighed as it began to rain. He sat in front of the memorial tablet filled with names of man people even some he had known.  
  
"Obito what if he wakes up and doesn't remember? What if he doesn't wake up at all?" Kakashi sat there staring at the stone not getting a reply.  
  
"Maybe if I had gotten to him earlier that day none of this would have happened." Kakashi began to trace some of the names. "I have to help him..............I need him."  
  
His fingers stopped when they reached Iruka's parents names. He couldn't help but wonder what they may have been like to have such a great son.............even though they weren't there..................doesn't the apple not fall far from the tree?  
  
"Thank you for bringing Iruka into this world................." The silver haired jonin stood up as the rain began to get heavier. "I promise to make sure he doesn't leave it just yet."  
  
v  
  
_Iruka opened his eyes.  
  
Darkness.  
  
He slowly sat up and looked at his body. He was still in his child form.  
  
"I am still alive?" He placed his hands against his head.  
  
"Why? Why didn't I just die?" Iruka felt tears come down from his eyes.  
  
"What have I done?" He began to tremble as he pulled his legs up against his chest.  
  
"Kakashi........."  
  
_v  
  
"Do you two mind if we leave the room for a moment?" Hokage smiled as the two boys shook their heads and he walked out with the adults.  
  
"Are we too late?" Kurenai finally asked the question that was screaming in her mind.  
  
"I don't know.........." Hokage shook his head, he needed to think before they came to conclusions.  
  
"I wish that we had found out more." Rei sighed as she leaned against the wall in the hallway.  
  
"But he still remembers Neji-kun right? Cant that be an advantage?" Gai watched as the Hokage looked up at him.  
  
"That's true.........."  
  
"But maybe Neji was the last person that Iruka or Akuri saw before he passed out and that is why he remembers........." Asuma sighed; he didn't like being the pessimist.  
  
"Neji was the closest one to Iruka at the time." Hiashi added to the facts, they couldn't get ahead of themselves.  
  
"Maybe but I think that there is a chance that him remembering Neji shows that Iruka is still in there. Even if it is the most unlikely person for him to remember......" Hokage looked down the hall to see a drenched Kakashi walk around the corner.  
  
"What's going on? Did Iruka wake up yet?" Kakashi curved his one eye until the heavy atmosphere hit him.  
  
"Kakashi will you wait out here with me?" The Hokage tried to smile as Kakashi tensed up. "You may all go back to the room now."  
  
Kakashi's breath stopped for a moment before he tried to calm himself down. Maybe there was nothing wrong and he was just over thinking...............if only he could stay as optimistic as Iruka was. Something was wrong.  
  
"Kakashi he woke up but.................."  
  
"Hokage-sama they are gone!" Rei ran out of the room to Hokage.  
  
"What?" Hokage immediately ran into the room as Kakashi followed quickly to see no one in their but themselves.  
  
"Everyone else is searching.........." Rei stopped when she noticed Kakashi had left.  
  
"Rei this might be hard for you but I need you to stop Kakashi............I will help the others look for Iruka." Hokage nodded as they both vanished.  
  
v  
  
"I said stop following me!" Neji turned around for the fifth time to yell at the small boy behind him.  
  
"But........but........." Akuri glanced around and then smiled at Neji.  
  
"But what?" Neji tried to hold down the blush as the younger boy looked up to him.  
  
"I don't know where we are and it's raining outside." Akuri smiled again as he pointed to the doors they were going to go out of.  
  
"We are in the same building! Just go back up the stairs to Hokage-sama's office! And I know it's raining what does that have to do with anything?" Neji sighed as he was about to walk out but a small hand grabbed his shirt.  
  
"What now?"  
  
"I want to stay with you." The smaller boy huffed causing his hair to fall in his face.  
  
That was when Neji noticed that Akuri was still wearing a bandage over his nose.  
  
"Please?" Akuri looked up to the milky-eyed boy. If there was anything he knew it was that he felt safer around the older boy.  
  
Neji sighed after a while and looked back outside. He isn't supposed to be babysitting strange little kids or is he supposed to be taking them from Hokage-sama's office.  
  
"No, now go back." Neji huffed and left the building before the smaller boy could react.  
  
"Uh....but....." Akuri looked around, he didn't like this place at all. It was dark and scary and now he is all alone.  
  
"Wait for me!" He ran out into the rain in the direction he thought he saw Neji go.  
  
v  
  
_Iruka shuddered as his body began to feel cold and wet. He quickly stood up looking around in the darkness.  
  
What was this?  
  
He spun around again as his cloths became damp and his hair wet...............but there was no rain no water.  
  
Then what was he feeling?  
  
His body began to tremble in the wet cold as he saw his breath. Why was he so tired now? He was just fine a minute ago? What was this?  
  
He fell onto his knees as his tears began to fall off his dampened skin.  
  
Was this how he was supposed to live? He didn't want this.........He didn't want any of this to happen!  
  
Why him?  
  
This cold was too harsh he could feel his body going numb.  
  
A smirk crossed his lips. This is what he deserved. He left without a fight. He lost a battle that never really started to begin with. He wasn't strong he knew that............but when it came to life?  
  
Where was he there?  
  
He had to live! Live for Konoha! Live for his students! Naruto!  
  
Kakashi.............  
  
He couldn't give up now...........he may have given in but he still had a chance right? He could try.......right?  
  
It wasn't too late..............right?  
  
Suddenly something warm enveloped him.  
  
Iruka gasped quietly.............it was so warm........so soft..............  
  
He had to get back................he had to apologize for ruining peoples lives! He could try to make it right! He had to make it right!  
  
Someway............somehow.......  
  
He would fix things.............  
  
Or at least try............  
  
It was his nindo.  
  
_v  
  
Hokage and Hiashi watched quietly as Neji carried a passed out Akuri through the rain towards his apartment.  
  
"This will be okay.........for now." The Hokage looked over at Hiashi who nodded quietly.  
  
"Hokage-sama! Come quick! Kakashi and Gai are fighting!" Rei jumped up and waited for the men to follow her.  
  
v  
  
"Gai I need to go!" Kakashi yelled through the storm at his long time rival.  
  
"No Kakashi you are not going anywhere." Gai watched his friend closely. This was too much for Kakashi and Gai knew that...........he didn't want his friend doing something stupid.  
  
"You better leave me alone or I wont let down Gai." Kakashi threatened as he got into a battling stance.  
  
"I wouldn't have it any other way Kakashi, besides your still wining I believe." Gai smirked as he waited for Kakashi to come.  
  
"I don't have time for your stupid games!" Kakashi left starting a long awaited battle that should never have to happen.  
  
Iruka was awake.  
  
But something was wrong.  
  
Kakashi knew it.  
  
Something was wrong and Iruka was gone again.  
  
Why couldn't he ever do anything to help the situation!  
  
Kakashi quickly dodged all of the attacks thrown at him from his rival. It was like a pattern in their spars.  
  
He started.  
  
Gai kicked.  
  
He blocked and punched.  
  
Gai dodged and kicked again.  
  
And the routine went on.  
  
"Kakashi I may not know how you are feeling because I have not found my special someone but I do know that the way you are handling everything is wrong." Gai landed a punch into the silver-haired jonin's stomach.  
  
"And what would you know Gai." Kakashi trembled as he stood up preparing to fight again.  
  
"I know that you fighting and blaming yourself will not help Iruka.........."  
  
"Kakashi! Gai! That's enough." Hokage appeared between them as he watched Gai relax and Kakashi stare at the ground.  
  
Kakashi took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Since when did Gai give him advice? And good advice at that?  
  
"We are going to get out of this rain now." Hokage ordered more than he stated as he watched Kakashi.  
  
"Where is Iruka?"  
  
"He is being taken care of."  
  
v  
  
Neji sighed as he walked through his apartment door carrying the small boy on his back. Not only were they both drenched but the weather decided to freeze them also.  
  
Why did he have to stay and watch the kid run through the rain?  
  
Neji shut his door and walked through his small apartment to see two 'get well soon' cards on his table............of course from Lee and Tenten. But they never expected him to give them one when they were sick or injured.  
  
Neji gasped as he felt Akuri snuggle into his back sending shivers throughout his body. If he didn't do something soon they would both end up sick. He would just have to tell the Hokage that Akuri was with him tomorrow. Of course there was the fact that the old geezer probably already knew.  
  
Neji was brought back into reality as the smaller boy began to move again so he quickly went to his room and laid the boy onto his bed. He had to take off the wet cloths so maybe Akuri wouldn't mind wearing his cloths for the night, Neji thought as he pulled the boy's shirt off and began working with the other cloths.  
  
Why did he get stuck with the kid anyway?  
  
The Hyuga finally covered up the boy in his bed; he would just sleep on the couch tonight. He looked over the sleeping form; there was something different about this kid. What had happened at the party? Why didn't he have any chakra but does now?  
  
Neji shook his head, he still needed to get out of his cloths.  
  
He looked back down and noticed that the bandage that was on the boy's face earlier was soaked and falling off. Why did he wear a bandage anyway? Neji slowly reached up and gently took it off if the sleeping boy's face to reveal a scar across the bridge of his nose.  
  
Strange. Neji thought to himself. Why hide something as simple as that.............unless you are trying to forget something...........another life perhaps?  
  
Hyuga Neji.................perceptive.  
  
v  
  
"You cannot do that Hokage-sama!" Kakashi yelled through clenched teeth.  
  
Hokage just announced that Kakashi was to stay away from Iruka for the time being.  
  
"I can and you will Kakashi. I will be placing an Anbu team to watch you also." The elder stated as he took off his soaked robe and hat.  
  
"But Hokage-sama!"  
  
"No Kakashi. You will not go near Iruka right now and I don't care how far I have to go to make sure of it." Hokage spun around sending a glare in the jonin's direction.  
  
Kakashi clenched his fist as he stood there. Why? Why was he doing this? He could help Iruka! He didn't know how but there had to be a chance!  
  
"I will speak with Neji in the morning. Iruka is to stay with him at all times and I will declare it as a mission so that we may not spill out what is happening." Hokage looked at all of the people in his room.  
  
"Get a good night's sleep and come to my office immediately in the morning. We will discuss things then." Hokage turned toward Kakashi, "I will still need your help but you don't have to come if so fits."  
  
With that the old man left into his chambers.  
  
Kakashi stood there. Of course he would come! He had to help Iruka no matter what. He wasn't going to lose. He wasn't going to leave.  
  
"Kakashi lets go home." Gai patted his shoulder before vanishing with everyone else.  
  
v  
  
Neji slowly woke up to fill something warm and heavy on top of him..............breathing slowly............  
  
He looked down to see that sometime during the night the kid had decided to join him on the couch. Akuri was laying curled up to Neji's chest burying his head into the Hyuga's neck as the blanket covered them both.  
  
Neji stared for a moment registering what was going on. He didn't know whether to blush because of someone being so close or to be angry with himself for allowing someone to get so close and not wake up.  
  
Of course the latter made more sense and the boy on him was anything but normal.  
  
He watched as the sunlight slowly engulfed the room showing that it was going to be a clear day after that storm last night. Weather was funny like that. One day it would be a horrible storm destroying the nature of the area and the next it would be a clear sunny day allowing the beauty of nature shine.  
  
Weather was like life. You never knew what would happen.............but fate had a funny way of running things too.  
  
"Hmpha...........ma............" Neji looked down as the boy under the sheets started to squirm and adjust, he decided to take advantage of this and sit up causing the smaller form to lie in his lap.  
  
"Hey wake up." Neji frowned as he poked the little boy. He knew that he shouldn't like the contact he was getting but something about the small kid just made him feel comfortable.  
  
It was unnerving to think that he didn't know why.  
  
"Tenten lets see if Neji is home yet!" Neji sighed as he heard Lee running up the stairs to his apartment.  
  
"He might still be in the hospital Lee! He was really close to that kid!" He could hear Tenten sigh but she still followed the green clad Lee.  
  
"You need to wake up." Neji shook the kid this time to no avail. The little boy just wouldn't wake up.  
  
"Mmmmmm..........five more minutes.........." The smaller form sighed in its sleep as it tried to snuggle back into Neji's lap.  
  
"Whatever......." Neji sighed slowly getting up and replacing himself with a nearby cushion.  
  
He couldn't let Lee or Tenten see him like that.  
  
"HEY NEJI ARE YOU HOME YET?" Lee shouted as he knocked on the door energetically consequently waking up the sleeping child from his slumber.  
  
"Lee be quiet! Not everyone has to wake up early for training you idiot!" Neji sighed as he opened the door just in time to see Tenten hit Lee a few times.  
  
"Neji! How are you feeling?" Tenten blushed as she saw Neji standing at the door.  
  
"Are you going to train with us today?" Lee grinned as he rubbed the part of his head that Tenten had pounded.  
  
Neji looked at them and then thought about the kid on his couch. He didn't just want to leave the child in his apartment and he really didn't feel like bothering himself with Tenten or Lee today. But training sounded like a good thing to do.............so maybe he could just take the kid back to Hokage and go anyway.  
  
Why was he babysitting again?  
  
"I guess but I need to go by Hokage-sama's office first." Neji sighed as he opened the door allowing his teammates to come inside.  
  
"Really? Did you forget to turn in our last mission report?" Tenten asked as she walked inside being quickly followed by Lee.  
  
"No I..............."  
  
"Neji-sama where is the bathroom?" All three of them turned to see the small boy still rubbing his eyes from sleep standing in the middle of the bathroom. The shirt he was wearing was hanging off of his shoulders and went down to his knees and the boxers looked more like long shorts.  
  
"Uh..........its that door right there." Neji pointed as the kid went into the room.  
  
"Um.............." Tenten looked over at Neji surprised.  
  
"Hey Neji what is Akuri-kun doing here? And why is he wearing your cloths?" Lee popped out of nowhere asking the questions on Tenten's mind.  
  
"It's a long story." Neji sighed, he didn't have to explain himself if he didn't want to . "But we need to take him back to the Hokage's"  
  
"Okay then we will do that first!" Tenten blushed as Neji nodded and then went to his room to get on his training cloths.  
  
"Hey Tenten is it just me or does he seem different?" Lee sat down on the kitchen table as Tenten looked over at he teammate confused.  
  
"How is that Lee?"  
  
"He seemed a little more............." The boy in green thought for a moment trying to think of the perfect word. "Peaceful."  
  
"Hello." Both of the genins turned to see the cute little boy smiling at them.  
  
"Ohayo Akuri-kun! Are you feeling better also?" Lee smiled down at the boy before he noticed the confused look he was getting.  
  
"Do you know me?" The boy asked innocently causing both of the genin to go blank.  
  
"Yeah! Its me Lee-kun! Remember we met a few days ago..............and then you went crazy and almost killed........mmmph.!" Lee was interrupted by Tenten's hand; as she just smiled.  
  
"Lee I think he is suffering from amnesia!" Tenten hissed in his ear, "maybe we shouldn't talk about the party okay?"  
  
"I don't know what you are talking about but you sure are funny looking." Akuri laughed as Tenten snickered over at Lee.  
  
"Okay lets go." Neji stopped when he got to the kitchen and saw Akuri and Tenten laughing as Lee cried in a corner.  
  
"Wait Neji he just can't walk out in that outfit! Where are his other cloths?" Tenten looked over at Neji who sighed.  
  
"They are still wet from the storm last night. He......uh......we got caught in it."  
  
"Well okay but lets go on the roofs so everyone doesn't think we are mistreating him by making him walk around in boxers." Tenten pointed out as Lee nodded.  
  
"Walk on roofs! You can do that!" Akuri gasped, "How do you get up there with out falling?"  
  
"Well you're a ninja too aren't you?" Tenten looked at the boy confused before she remembered. "Oh yeah you got amnesia!"  
  
"Amnesia?" Neji spat out confused. What on earth was going on in that woman's mind anyway?  
  
Maybe he didn't want to know.  
  
"Can Neji-sama carry me?" Akuri smiled brightly over at Neji who frowned as Tenten giggled.  
  
"Hey why do you call Neji-kun 'sama'?" Lee jumped out from his corner.  
  
"Because that is what the other people called the old guy yesterday in that weird building." Akuri pointed out.  
  
"Yeah but you shouldn't so too much respect to him............he gets pig headed." Lee smirked as he whispered into Akuri's ear causing the boy to turn and look at Neji surprised.  
  
"You can have a pig's head!" The little boy shouted causing everyone to fall as they were caught off guard.  
  
"Oi how old are you? You act like a four year old but you look like a twelve year old." Tenten sighed as she stood up.  
  
"Hey remember he has anemia!" Lee looked over at Tenten who frowned at him.  
  
"Amnesia Lee."  
  
"Come on." Neji bent down and let the little boy climb on his back before he left the apartment not noticing the grins he was earning from his teammates behind him.  
  
v  
  
And that's the end of that chapter!  
  
K-chan:looks worriedly around at readers Was it okay? I made it longer than the original chapter because I though you all would like it better!  
  
cries Its not my fault that it was erased and I could remember exactly how I had everything! I was stressed!  
  
smiles But that is all over now! And it is summer time! And I will update this story quickly! Because well.......I have made you guys wait long enough! HAHAHAHA!  
  
I will be better! does cool Gai pose I shall live out the exuberance of my youthfull summers making sure not to take longer than two weeks to update any more!  
  
Okay..........so anyways......how was it? You like it? REVIEW please! If you are confused feel free to ask questions! If a part sucked you can flame!  
  
(but please don't be too harsh gets teary eyed I am fragile!)  
  
I hope some of you are reading my other story that I have started  
  
See no Evil!  
  
Its going to part of this thing I am doing! There are two other stories called Speak no Evil and Hear no Evil which revolve around other characters but don't worry! I wont start on those until I am done with theses stories! HAHA!  
  
Well please Review! Onegai!  
  
(btw) the whole bird thing is because of Neji's whole fate conspiracy! Lol in the anime and manga there has to be a bird scene or birds in a neji scene its funny!  
  
v Replies to Reviews!  
  
**Amy:** lol it was may first! Now it is June 6, 2004! Haha lol I know I am a horrible person but I hope that the wait was semi worth it and I hope you are still reading my stories! I promise to be quicker!  
  
**cdkobasiuk**: really? Suspenseful! Sweet! I think I might be doing something right! does a chibi dance and thank you! I hope that you will read my other stories also!  
  
**SsjAndromeda**: I am sorry about your whole fate thing lol I guess you can talk to Neji about it later lol Again I am so sorry for the wait! Agh! And I hope you enjoy the ending!  
  
**KabutoWhore**: I hope I answered some questions! If not feel free to flame me for being an idiot okay! And a bad updater! Lol I hope I can explain things well..............they just pop up in my head and make sense but its not so easy to get it out! Lol you know what I mean?  
  
**Sonha**: I agree my sister is a horrible person! Just yesterday she was laughing at me and my lack of reviews compared to her story! Its sad! cries lol Angst in the same day? Haha yeah I guess we do try to update at the same time (when I have typed my chapter lol if not she just goes ahead) Thankyou and I hope you continue reading our stories! lol even though my new story in SasuNaru I do have a lot of KakaIru stories to put out on fanfiction lol even P-sama7 I think is going to do a lot more KakaIru other than he SasuNaru (that she hasn't posted yet but is good you should yell at her and make her post it lol) Thankyou for your review!  
  
**KakashiLvr** : I am sorry I have probably failed considering you wanted a quick update! Lol but it wasn't my fault! It was my comps! I swear! Well I hope you are still interested in the story!  
  
**DanceDanceKakashi**: I have updated..............but like three months after you wanted it..........hahaha laughs nervously GOMEN NASAI!  
  
**Better**: lol I am sorry about the wait but I hope you think it was worth it again! Haha I promise you wont have to wait this long again! (unless I mysteriously get to go to japan for like ten months then I will be like "FORGET FF.NET YAY JAPAN!" but that isn't going to happen anytime soon sighs so thankyou!  
  
**Sausweet**: Yes when you reviewed this last your name was Sausweet and not Moonsweet.............woah....................lol well just so you know the kid with green eyes isn't Gaara! (if you haven't gotten that already lol) I hope you still like this story and (btwn you and me...and anyone that reads this....there are only like two chapters left....but don't worry! They will be good.................i hope) 


	7. Lunch and Family

v  
  
"Sanely applied advertising could remake the world!" Stuart Chase  
  
v  
  
Chapter Seven : Lunch and Family  
  
v  
  
Kakashi was at the Hokage's office as soon as the sun began to rise. He couldn't sleep that night and hadn't eaten since Iruka was at Kurenai's house.  
  
He was becoming a mess.............he knew it.............Hokage knew it...........but they weren't going to say anything as they watched the sunrise in silence off of the balcony in his office.  
  
"Ohayo Kakashi............Hokage-sama" Kurenai bowed her head before Asuma appeared right beside her with a small grunt.  
  
"Geez Kakashi you look like crap." The bearded jonin decided to share his opinion as he yawned lazily nodding toward Hokage.  
  
"I guess I do." Kakashi curved his one visible eye before sighing as a light breeze went through the room.  
  
"We will get started as soon as Hiashi, Gai, and Rei get here." Hokage finally announced as he glanced around the city.  
  
"Hokage-sama I saw Neji on his way here with his teammates and Iruka." Rei huffed as she landed on the balcony. She looked like a mess with Kakashi; it was obvious that she hadn't slept either.  
  
"Ah.............good then." Hokage looked at her as she smiled over toward him. "Do you understand what we need to do?"  
  
"Somewhat," Rei looked over at Kakashi before continuing, "from the copy I made of the scroll this is a surprisingly long process and a lot of the kanji is smeared at the end so I am working on it."  
  
"How much longer?" Hokage began to walk into his office as Hiashi entered.  
  
"I think I can get it by lunch but I might need your help translating so is it alright if I go get it and bring it here?" Rei smiled as Hokage nodded before she left.  
  
"How long can the process be?" Kakashi looked over at Hokage who sighed as he looked over at Hiashi.  
  
"Now we are just waiting for............."  
  
"Lee-kun! Neji-kun! Tenten-chan! And um........Iru.......Akuri? What are you doing here?" Everyone heard Gai as he entered the office being followed by three genin and the boy on Neji's back.  
  
"Hehe." Akuri laughed, "You look even weirder than Lee-kun!"  
  
"Akuri-kun what did I tell you about insulting people right away!" Tenten glared at the little boy who sighed.  
  
"Don't do it unless they wont hear you.........." The boy looked around with his bright green eyes to see the same people as the day before.  
  
"Ah.............thank you for watching him last night, Neji." Hokage smiled at the children.  
  
"He followed me into the storm." Neji frowned as Hokage just chuckled before nodding. He looked over at Kurenai and Asuma who seemed to be watching Kakashi.........he looked over at the silver-haired jonin who seemed tense and was staring at the boy on his back.  
  
What's that all about? Neji thought to himself as he looked over to Hiashi and just nodded formally.  
  
"Hokage-sama if you don't mind my asking.........." Tenten walked over to the elder man's desk. "Is Akuri-kun suffering from amnesia? He doesn't seem to remember anything or anyone but Neji." Tenten smiled as Hokage nodded knowingly.  
  
"Ah.............well you see I have a favor to ask of you three but mainly Neji here...." Hokage waited for Neji to finish putting to boy on the ground and off of his back, "Consider this a mission if you would like but I would like for you to watch over Akuri for a little while."  
  
"What?" Neji frowned as he looked at the old man and then back at the younger boy who was now holding on to his shirt.  
  
"Sure that would be fun! Right Akuri-kun!" Lee smiled as Akuri nodded quickly.  
  
"You can still train and do side missions if you would like but I would appreciate it if you didn't let Akuri out of your sight." Hokage watched as Neji sighed and then nodded his okay.  
  
Neji just didn't get why he had to watch this kid. Was it because of his memory loss? Then wouldn't it be better if he stayed with Kakashi? Wasn't that where Naruto said Akuri was staying to begin with?  
  
"I know you can do this mission my team!" Gai smiled at them brightly causing Lee to jump up happily. Tenten and Neji just sighed.  
  
Babysitting Lee was enough, but to add a kid who seemed to have forgotten everything? For once they would rather get stuck on a two-week camping mission with Gai.  
  
They watched as Lee and Gai sparkled in excitement..........never mind no one in their right mind would want to be stuck with those two for two weeks let alone.........ever.  
  
"Okay you three............urm four! Go train your youthful hearts out!" Gai smiled as they began to leave.  
  
"Neji-sama.......kun." Neji turned to see Akuri look up at him.  
  
The Hyuga sighed as he got down again so he could carry the boy on his back. It didn't really bother him but he didn't want anyone else to know that.  
  
"Domo.........." Akuri smiled as he wrapped his arms around Neji's neck and they walked out of the room with an excited Lee and blushing Tenten.  
  
"Well I would have never believed it if I hadn't seen it!" Gai watched as they walked down the hall. "Neji.........giving a piggy back ride! Haha!"  
  
"Okay I am here!" Rei appeared in a cloud of smoke with a small scroll and another paper that looked like a list.  
  
"Alright lets get this started shall we?" Hokage waited for her to put down the scroll.  
  
"Okay I am going to need all for of you to look for these items............" Rei handed Kurenai, Asuma, Gai, and Hiashi each a piece of the list. "Kakashi........" She turned to him; "I am going to need to use you and your Anbu guards for a moment."  
  
"Alright you heard her." Hokage smirked as the four shinobi vanished with their pieces of the list and the three Anbu that were guarding Kakashi appeared beside the jonin.  
  
"I need your help with your healing techniques......" Rei started to explain the plan.  
  
v  
  
"So how do you feel?" Tenten sat under a tree with Akuri as Neji and Lee spared. She had just finished setting up the training course for the guys.............of course adding a few extra traps here and there for the fun.  
  
"I feel okay, why?" The green eyed boy watched the girl closely............she was scary.  
  
"Would you like to play with some of my weapons?" Tenten giggled at the cute boy in front of her. If Lee was right, Sakura had told him that Akuri was twelve, which meant she was two years older than him. Even though he looked like he was around ten.  
  
"Yeah!" Akuri cheered causing Neji to look over at him just before Lee punched the Hyuga in the stomach.  
  
"Ow." Neji landed on his butt getting a surprised expression from the three people around him.  
  
"Neji are you okay?" Tenten ran over to the milky eyed boy as Lee became teary eyed.  
  
"I-I I won! I won!" The boy in green began to jump up and down as Tenten glared over at him and Neji stood back up.  
  
"You win when you knock me out like I usually do you..........baka." Neji smirked as Lee turned around with fire in his eyes.  
  
"I shall win!"  
  
"Go Neji-kun!" Tenten blushed as she walked back over to the green-eyed boy.  
  
"What was that?" Akuri looked at her upset.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Why do you hurt each other for fun?" Akuri frowned over at the girl with two buns on her head.  
  
"Oh! We don't hurt each other............too much............its what we do for training! To get stronger! You really did forget a lot didn't you?" Tenten smiled as she got up to get her extra weapons.  
  
"I didn't forget anything............." Akuri mumbled in his breath, "I just don't remember.........I think.........."  
  
"Okay Akuri-kun! You can play with these as I go through the training with the guys!" Tenten smiled as she set up a few targets and a scarecrow for the boy to throw at.  
  
"Cool." Akuri picked up the weapons as Tenten pushed Lee and Neji into her course.  
  
After he had thrown most of the weapons he looked over to where Tenten's course had started. He would here a yell or laugh every once in a while.  
  
He dropped the kunai in his hand and walked over to look in. Throwing weapons wasn't any fun when you hit the middle every time.  
  
Akuri sighed as he looked into the forest now filled with weapons..........he wondered if Neji would play with him after they got out...........but what if they took too long.  
  
He would just have to wait.  
  
Akuri sat down Indian style at the entrance and waited for them to return. He really wanted to play with someone.  
  
After a few minutes the green eyed boy decided that maybe one of them were in trouble and were taking too long to get out.  
  
He had to go rescue Neji!  
  
The little boy smirked as he ran and grabbed two kunai from the left over pile and ran into the entrance of the training course.  
  
"I hope you guys are having fun!" Tenten laughed as she set off traps and threw weapons in while she followed the boy's movements from outside the course.  
  
"Gee Tenten you didn't lighten up at all today!" Lee pulled the third kunai out of his thigh. He was used to getting hit once or twice but three times! Was that woman trying to kill him?  
  
"Not before I marry Sakura-chan!" Lee yelled in mid thought as he ran past Neji setting off more traps.  
  
"Baka." Neji sighed as he continued dodging and using his chakra to deflect the weapons.  
  
Akuri turned the corner just in time to see Lee set off another trap and a giant log (full of kunai but they didn't know that) came falling from the top of the woods as Neji and Lee looked up.  
  
"WATCH OUT NEJI-KUN!!!" Akuri yelled causing everyone to look over at the boy.  
  
"No! Get out of the way!" Tenten yelled just as the log hit Lee and Neji bursting sending the boys and a ton of kunai in Akuri's direction.  
  
"AAAAAHHHH!"  
  
"Akuri!"  
  
v  
  
"What the crap does she need ten gallons of ink for?" Asuma sighed as he finished yet another cigarette.  
  
"Don't ask just buy." Kurenai sighed as she looked at her list, "Do you know where I can get some incense candles?"  
  
"Are you serious?" Asuma choked as he put another cigarette on his lips.  
  
"How are you two doing with your lists? I got all of mine!" Both of the jonin sensei's looked up to see Gai with a large bag over his shoulders.  
  
"All of it? You found everything?" Kurenai asked in disbelief.  
  
"Yeah it was all at the variety shop!" Gai laughed as he continued his jolly way towards Hokage-sama's office.  
  
"You know, I thought he would be a little more serious about the situation." Asuma huffed as he spun the cigarette with his lips.  
  
"I think he is just trying to hide the worries, ne? Hiashi-san?" Hiashi nodded as he walked back toward the office slowly behind Gai.  
  
"I guess he got all of his too."  
  
"First one of us back with all of the supplies has to buy the other diner." Kurenai smirked as she vanished.  
  
"Crap." Asuma sighed as he began to run down toward the variety shop.  
  
v  
  
Tenten would have never believed it if she hadn't seen it. She looked down at the barely injured bodies of her teammates and then back over at Akuri who was watching over Neji.  
  
Not only had the green-eyed boy dodged every single kunai that was thrown his way he jumped out and got Neji and Lee before any of the kunai had hit them. The speed and skill was definitely beyond genin.  
  
Of course when she had asked about it, Akuri just smiled and said he didn't remember but it just happened.  
  
There was something with the younger boy and she wanted to know what.  
  
He blasts everyone with chakra at the party, which need she remind anyone that it really hurt. Then he develops chunin level skill out of the blue? When they carried the boys to the field she saw how he had hit every target dead center.  
  
He could have just placed them there but then again he could never reach the center of the scarecrow's head.  
  
"Ow!" Lee sat up suddenly and Tenten smiled.  
  
"Are you okay Lee?" She looked over his body he seemed like usual after a hard training session.  
  
"What happened?" Lee looked over at the still out Neji and the green-eyed boy watching his friend.  
  
"I went a little over board but.........Akuri saved you two." Tenten watched as Lee gave her a confused look so she leaned over to him so she could whisper. "His skills are beyond genin level but he doesn't remember."  
  
"Ah........" Lee still looked very confused.........at least more than usual. "So um Akuri doesn't know..........but he has skills............better than mine.............and he saved us?"  
  
Lee waited until Tenten nodded.  
  
"Neji!" They both turned to see the smaller boy tackle a used to be sitting up Neji.  
  
"Umph."  
  
"Are you okay Neji?" Tenten asked quickly as she watched him try to sit up again with the younger boy in his lap.  
  
"Yeah." Neji looked over at Lee and then down at Akuri. None of them were injured as bad as they should be...........Akuri wasn't even injured.  
  
"Akuri saved us! But he doesn't remember!" Neji looked wide eyed over at Lee, if Akuri had saved them and not gotten any scratches or cuts..........that would mean that..........  
  
"Tenten said his skills were a chunin levels" Lee whispered one more thing before he stood up to help Tenten back up her weapons.  
  
"I am sorry!" Neji shook his head and looked down to see that the smaller boy has crying against his chest.  
  
"Why are you crying?" For some reason, seeing Akuri cry made Neji upset. And Neji didn't like this feeling.  
  
"Because I hurt Neji and Lee-kun!" Akuri grabbed Neji's shirt as he let the tears fall out of his eyes. He almost hurt the one person that was familiar to him.  
  
Neji sat there staring at the smaller form, he didn't know what to do. He had never dealt with kids before. If his team were ever assigned to baby sit Lee and Tenten would take of the kids and Neji would do the other things.  
  
What was he supposed to do with a crying kid that was about his age and didn't know anything about his past?  
  
Neji sat up more and pulled the smaller form closer to him as he wrapped his arms around the crying boy. Isn't this what he saw Tenten do once to a crying little girl? Was this what he was supposed to do?  
  
He was answered as the sobs slowly stopped and the smaller form's breathing started to slow down.  
  
Tenten smiled as she watched the sight with Lee. Maybe having this Akuri kid around was a better idea than she had thought.  
  
"I would have never believed it if I never saw it." Lee whispered as he watched Neji rub Akuri's back.  
  
"Come on baka! Lets get out of here before he remembers that we are still here!" She whispered as she grabbed Lee and darted out of the field.  
  
"Hey are you asleep?" Neji asked the slumbering from on his lap already knowing the answer. For some reason this felt...........okay. It was different. Neji didn't know what to do so he slowly scooted so that he could lean against a tree. It was probably around noon as Neji judged the location of the sun.  
  
How long as Akuri going to stay with him?  
  
Not that it was a bad thing or anything. Neji looked down at the sleeping boy, it was just..............different.  
  
v  
  
"Is Kurenai here yet?" Asuma appeared as he watched someone appear right beside him.  
  
"Is Asuma here yet?" Kurenai turned to see Asuma smirking at her. "Dang."  
  
"Did you get everything?" Rei smiled as they nodded.  
  
"By the way............if this was a battling jutsu wouldn't they have made a way to change themselves back easier than this?" Asuma finally asked the question that was bugging his mind.  
  
"Well yeah.......you see........" Rei looked down at the scroll and then back over at Asuma, "We don't know if this will really change him back......so just in case I think that it would help if we mixed some other dispelling jutsus that are really strong but simple."  
  
"Ah.........so you figure if this doesn't work one of those may have a chance." Asuma nodded to himself as he set his bag on the desk.  
  
"How long is it going to take setting all of this up?" Kakashi looked at all of the junk in the bags, what was this girl thinking? The longer they took the less time Iruka had.  
  
But then again to have a back up plan was good..........Kakashi sighed as he shook his head, Iruka would come back, there was no way that the chunin sensei would give up everything so easily.  
  
Right?  
  
"I think that with some help from everyone else.............we could get all of this set up by tonight or early tomorrow morning...........but......." Rei looked over at Hokage, who looked up from the scroll.  
  
"But what?" Kakashi couldn't handle this; they needed to get started.  
  
"Anyone know where there is a large empty room we can use? Something with nothing in it; no furniture or anything like that."  
  
"You can use the main room in the dojo." Hiashi spoke up from his studying the scroll also. "It's the largest room in the house and we don't put any furniture in it."  
  
"Okay then if we could move there and begin this I think that would be good."  
  
v  
  
"I said wake up!" Neji shook Akuri by his shoulders in his umpteenth try of waking up the younger boy.  
  
Geez he is worse than Lee, Neji sighed as the younger boy tried to snuggle up against him again. The Hyuga was hungry and even though he didn't want to wake up the sleeping boy, if he didn't he was sure the kid would want to stay up all night.  
  
"Ugh." Neji sighed as he stood up quickly causing the smaller form to land on the ground in a thud.  
  
"Ow." Akuri mumbled as he sat up and rubbed his eyes.  
  
"Hey come on, its lunch time." Neji turned around and began to walk away. Finally content with waking up the kid.  
  
Content? No Neji wasn't content? No.........he couldn't be...........right?  
  
"Hey! Wait for me Neji-sama......uh........kun!" Akuri ran quickly to catch up with the Hyuga. He didn't want to be left behind.  
  
He didn't want to be alone.  
  
Neji stopped and looked down at the silent boy. What was wrong with the kid now?  
  
He stepped in front of Akuri and bent down so that he could crawl onto his back.  
  
The green-eyed boy looked up surprised before smiling brightly. Neji wasn't mad at him! He quickly jumped on the older boy's back and laughed.  
  
"So where are we going for lunch?" Akuri beamed in childish delight almost causing Neji to smile. Almost. He settled for a small smirk instead.  
  
"What do you eat?" Neji felt sort of stupid asking that, it wasn't like he was taking care of an animal or something.  
  
"Ramen!" Akuri laughed and then stopped, "Wait what is ramen?"  
  
Neji quickly caught himself before he fell over. "You don't remember food either?" He sighed, how much could someone with amnesia forget?  
  
Never mind............he didn't want the answer.  
  
"I don't know..........." Akuri sighed as he laid his head against the back of Neji's, "but at least I remembered you ne? You are really cool!"  
  
Neji couldn't help but let out a larger smirk this time, he was cool. Then Neji stopped why did he care what this kid thought about him?  
  
"Hey Neji!"  
  
The Hyuga stooped and looked ahead to see Kiba, Hinata, and Shino.  
  
"Hey is that Akuri on your back?" Kiba ran up being followed by his teammates, "Whoa, kid what happened last night?"  
  
"H-how a-are you f-feeling Neji-niisan?" Hinata stammered, as she looked at the floor, her cousin still made her feel really uncomfortable.  
  
"Fine, and don't bother asking him anything, he forgot.............everything." Neji glared over at the annoying dog boy, why did he have to run into these idiots?  
  
Fate was cruel.  
  
"I am Akuri!" Akuri grinned as he tightened his grip around Neji's neck. "Who are you?"  
  
"Nani? He really did forget everything! But still why is the almighty Hyuga Neji giving a forgetful kid a piggy back ride?" Kiba laughed not noticing how he was earning glares from two people now.  
  
"I don't like you." Akuri stated flatly, "You smell bad too."  
  
"Nani! You little punk I oughta........"  
  
"Hey your eyes are like Neji-niisan's!" Akuri looked over at Hinata before Kiba could finish. If this girl could call Neji niisan then maybe he could too.  
  
"Hai." Hinata blushed at the cute little boy as she twiddled her fingers.  
  
"Don't interrupt me you little brat! I could beat you up!" Kiba snarled with a bark from Akamaru.  
  
"I even doubt that dog boy." Neji stated coolly, "Your skills could probably barely rival a newly admitted student at the academy."  
  
"NANI!" Kiba glared as Akamaru growled.  
  
"Kiba we are still late for meeting with Kurenai-sensei." Shino decided to remind his fuming friend.  
  
"Yeah, fine then." Kiba huffed glaring at the two boys, "Just you two wait, I will beat you both!" Kiba declared before stomping off , being followed by Shino.  
  
"Gomen Neji-niisan." Hinata bowed and then ran off.  
  
"Thanks Neji!" Akuri chuckled as he buried his head into the back of Neji's neck.  
  
That was when Neji realized that he just stood up for Akuri. Why did he do that? He doesn't stand up for random little people, and he really doesn't waste his time talking to the dog boy either.  
  
"Hn." Neji said as he began to think about his actions on their way to the ramen house.  
  
"AKURI!!! Is that you?" Neji sighed as they entered the Ichiraku ramen bar, of course Naruto would be here with this teammates, where else would they go.  
  
"Eep!" Akuri quickly jumped off of Neji's back and tried to hide behind him. That loud kid was scary. And he knew his name!  
  
"Ah Neji are you better?" Sakura smiled over at Neji who just nodded at her.  
  
"Hey what's his problem?" Naruto looked confused over at Neji but pointing at the kid behind his back.  
  
"He has anemia!" Lee announced as he entered the stand with Tenten. The green clad boy stopped and blushed when he noticed Sakura.  
  
"It's amnesia you idiot!" Tenten sighed as she pounded the top of Lee's head. Was he really that stupid?  
  
"Amnesia?" All three of team seven said at the same time.  
  
"Whats that?" Naruto asked dumbly getting hit on the head by Sakura. "Itai!"  
  
"Its when someone forgets everything you idiot!" Sakura blushed when she saw Sasuke nod in agreement.  
  
"So he forgot everything?" Naruto looked over at the green-eyed boy. "Wait a second!"  
  
Everyone stopped when they saw Naruto jump off from his stool, "This isn't Akuri! He has green eyes!"  
  
"Didn't he have green eyes to begin with?" Tenten asked confused.  
  
"I don't remember." Sakura sighed as she stirred her ramen.  
  
"Hey he has a scar on his nose!" Lee pointed out brilliantly causing his teammates to fall over.  
  
"You didn't notice that before?" Tenten glared over at the idiot for a teammate she had.  
  
"Neji I don't want to be here." Akuri grabbed the back of Neji's shirt as he tried to hide his face.  
  
"What's wrong with him? He is acting like a little kid." Sasuke stated as he looked over at the smaller boy. It would be a good thing if he had forgotten about the whole.............kiss thing.  
  
"Why what's wrong now?" Neji sighed as he felt the smaller figure against his back.  
  
"I don't like him, he seems evil." Akuri pointed over at Sasuke, earning a laugh from Naruto.  
  
"You're not that far off." Neji whispered with a smirk as Sasuke glared over at the laughing blonde.  
  
"Its okay Akuri, Sasuke is a good friend!" Sakura smiled not noticing how Sasuke now had Naruto's face in a bowl of ramen as he yelled at the blond.  
  
"No, I don't like him." Akuri shook his head into Neji's shirt.  
  
"Hn." Neji sighed, they could always go back to his apartment and eat the instant ramen there.  
  
"Neji-kun!" Everyone stopped and shuddered as they heard Gai yell for Neji; everyone except Lee who smiled brightly.  
  
"OVER HERE GAI-SENSEI!" He chirped loudly causing everyone to glare at him. "What?"  
  
"Oh thank you Lee!" Gai smiled as he entered the ramen bar and patted Lee on the head.  
  
"What?" Neji asked as he frowned, he still hadn't had lunch.  
  
"I need you to bring Iru.......I mean Akuri to the Hyuga mansion." Everyone noticed how the atmosphere became heavy and Neji tensed up.  
  
"Why?" He glared at his sensei.  
  
"Because that is what Hokage-sama wants, now come." Gai glared back at his student catching everyone by surprise.  
  
"Hmph." Neji stopped the staring contest by turning and leaving the restaurant being followed closely by the smaller boy.  
  
"Bye Lee and Tenten!" Gai smiled as he followed after.  
  
"Why didn't we go to? Aren't we supposed to be on the mission with Neji" Lee looked over at Tenten confused.  
  
"No Hokage-sama said we could just help if we wanted to." The girl with two buns on her head sighed, "But that was strange."  
  
"Hey! Hey!" Naruto whispered over to Lee as Tenten started to order some ramen. "What is this mission?"  
  
"To watch Akuri-kun." Lee nodded and then ordered some ramen too.  
  
"Oh so Neji is just babysitting?" Naruto sighed; he hoped it was something cool or life changing.  
  
"Yeah but it was really weird because all of our jonin sensei's and Hyuga Hiashi were in Hokage-sama's office when they assigned it to him. The atmosphere was really heavy." Tenten stated as she sat beside Sakura saving the pink-haired girl from her teammate.  
  
"Ah! Tenten I wanted to sit beside Sakura-chan!" Lee sighed in defeat.  
  
"What were they all doing there?" Sakura asked the other female genin, both of them trying to ignore Lee.  
  
"I don't know but Neji isn't too happy about going to the Hyuga mansion." Tenten sighed as her ramen was delivered.  
  
"Yeah, he still hates them after the chunin exam ne?" Naruto started to eat another bowl of ramen.  
  
"I don't know anymore, but I like this mission he is on." Tenten giggled to herself, "I hope that Akuri changes Neji."  
  
"Yeah you wouldn't believe what we saw....mmimohga" Lee was stopped again with Tenten's hand.  
  
"It was nothing but there is something strange about Akuri." Tenten glared over at Lee signaling he couldn't say anything.  
  
"What is that?" Sasuke asked showing that he had been listening to the entire conversation.  
  
"He doesn't remember but his ninja skills are that of a chunin." Tenten smiled as team seven looked at her confused.  
  
"I think that there is something more to our anemic friend than he lets on." Lee stated out of he blue before getting kicked in the face by his teammate.  
  
"AMNESIA!!!"  
  
v  
  
Iruka opened his eyes.  
  
Darkness.  
  
He tried many things.  
  
Running around.  
  
Using chakra.  
  
Anything his mind could think of he tried.  
  
Now he was floating though.  
  
His body felt lighter and almost nonexistent.  
  
He still had to try though.  
  
He could have sworn he heard a voice once.  
  
But it never came back.  
  
He tried to move but it seemed impossible.  
  
Even with his new found lightness.  
  
His body wouldn't move.  
  
But that wasn't going to stop him.  
  
v  
  
"Neji I know that you don't want to come here but Hokage-sama said that he would prefer if you could keep an eye on Akuri here for the time being." Gai looked down at his frowning student.  
  
"You two are going to be left alone if that helps." Gai sighed as his student began to glare straight ahead.  
  
"Why is Neji upset? What is this place?" Akuri was holding on to Neji's shirt still but was looking up to Gai.  
  
"Its okay Akuri, it's a nice place." Gai smiled down on Iruka's small body. He didn't like the whole pretending Iruka was Akuri. He wanted to just stop and tell the small form everything..........but then if anyone did that is should be Kakashi.  
  
v  
  
"Is Neji here then?" Hokage asked as Gai entered to dojo. Asuma, Kurenai, Kakashi, and Rei were still writing symbols all over the place.  
  
"Ah, yes he and Iruka are here." Gai stated causing Kurenai and Hiashi to look at him.  
  
"Do you think he knows anything about Iruka or 'Akuri' yet?" The red-eyed jonin asked looking over to Hiashi.  
  
"He didn't seem to show any signs of it, I think that he was just really confused as why he has to be here." Gai grinned as one of the Anbu guards came in holding two large bags.  
  
"Ah! Lunch!" Gai smiled.  
  
"Kakashi what would you like?" Asuma turned over to his friend to see that Kakashi was still working.  
  
"Lets leave him alone." Gai noticed his rival's behavior and shook his head, if Iruka didn't................no he couldn't think like that someone had to be optimistic about this whole situation.  
  
If not him then who else could keep Kakashi sane?  
  
"We should hurry up everyone if I know one thing about that old rookie genius its that he hates this place!" Gai laughed as he began to eat his food causing everyone to frown and Hiashi to glare over at the green beast.  
  
They were going to get finished that night no matter what, time was running out.  
  
v Hey guys!  
  
I hope you liked this chapter.........it was originally a lot longer but if I did that then the next chapter was going to be like four pages and I thought that doing that might just be a little cruel. Lol  
  
So I hope I am not boring anyone......  
  
Oh and if any of you care! (lol) check out my other story......(that I started writing and updating more that this one...............(sigh) I am so sorry!)  
  
REPLIES TO REVIEWS!  
  
Cdkobasiuk : lol I am glad you found this fic again! I kind of have a small rule to not update until I get atleast ten reviews (its stupid I kno) but you were the tenth reviewer! Yay! (gives you a cookie) I hope you enjoyed this chapter  
  
Riyo-sama: I am glad you gave this fic a chance too! (really happy actually lol) I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Haha  
  
Kyuuketsuki-Chan: (o.O) OMG! Egyptian Monkeys? (ish really scared) wait so you weren't kidding about hunting me down? Haha! Well I updated to try not to waste too much gas money! The prices are going up! Haha............(walks away slowly)  
  
Kesshou: LOL! YAY! Haha I hope you enjoy this chapter!  
  
Sabrea: well I guess you will have to read the next chapter.....believe me you will HATE the ending......hahahaha but maybe not for reasons you think.........in all actuality I could be pulling you leg and next chapter sux....or they all die.....but we both kno that neither of those will happen....hehehe so just what exactly will  
  
Sorry if I am playing with you mind too much   
  
Catc10: Thank you! 4:30 in the morning! That is amazing! I hope you didn't die from fatigue or anything! And I hope that I didn't make you wait too long lol! Just six or seven days ne? I really hope you continue to like this story!  
  
The La/=/er: It was really funny when I got a review from you for this story lol I was like oh! I am reading the reviews for the wrong story and then I checked...and I was like oh! And then I did a happy dance because you reviewed for this story! Lol okay so to reply......thankyou! I try to keep my stories unique! Haha if you couldn't tell and I am sorry for being evil to Iruka! I love him I really do! It was just the part he got put in I swear! I think (lol) I am having Akuri recognize Neji because that was the last person Iruka saw but the first person Akuri saw before he was truly transformed....if that makes sense......lol c ya!  
  
Evil Kasumi: Neji/Iru? EW! No! lol Haha yay! (is actually happy about the drama in this story and does a happy dance) Well I am trying to update quicker so lets see what happens next heehee! And thank you!  
  
Spirit and Essence: Lol sorry it took so long to update but I was really in a writers block for this fic and then my comp broke down but no worries now! Yay!  
  
SweetMoons: lol you keep changing you name! haha they deleted your account? That must be why you were erased from my alert page lol and your reviews! I cant believe you are going to give up your evil! No! don't do it! Haha lol well try not to get deleted again! Lol I didn't give up on this story! Yay! Haha I guess you are going to have to keep reading to get all of your questions answered! Haha! Lol sorry for taking so long that you have to reread? Haha Thank you!  
  
AND TO MICA-CHAN!  
  
Who so awesomely reviewed for my story on my sister's fic.......(laughs evilly) I must say that you made my day the day she emailed your review to me! Hahahaha I am glad that this story was your first fic and I hope that you are still enjoying it! Haha! Lol I hope your internet begins to work again and if not you can always email me at  
  
futureisnjapanaol.com  
  
or review at another of my sister's stories lol! Hahahahahaha! 


	8. Iruka? Finale

XXXX

Chapter 8: Iruka?

XXXX

Neji sighed looking around the room. He hadn't been in here in a while.

He glanced at the small boy in front of him who looked like he was about to fall asleep. They had been in here for a while now.

Neji frowned, why wasn't anyone telling them anything? Or at least give him a better reason for being in this place. He didn't like this, whatever was going on.

He could tell that there was a group of people in the Dojo, doing something…

"Neji-kun…" Neji looked over as the boy yawned and got up, sitting beside the Hyuga. "I don't want to be here anymore…"

The white-eyed boy couldn't help but feel a quick pang in his chest as the boy curled up against him laying his head in Neji's lap. He found himself putting his arm over the smaller from letting a small smile place itself on his lips.

He would protect Akuri.

XXXX

Iruka felt sick.

He felt his body weakening.

He was growing tired.

He couldn't find a way out.

He hadn't even heard those voices in a while, or seen the kid either.

He was worried.

"Kakashi…" He felt his voice crack as tears came into his eyes.

XXXX

Kakashi opened his eye as he quickly sat up.

Had he?

Did he just hear Iruka's voice?

"Kakashi!" The white-haired jounin quickly turned to see Asuma giving him an odd look. "You okay? Hope you don't mind we moved you out here when you fell asleep."

Kakashi realized he was in the hallway…covered in ink…

"How long was I…?"

"Just a few hours, if you're up now you can help us with the finishing touches…" Asuma grinned as the jounin quickly got up.

"Finishing?" Kakashi asked letting out a sigh of relief.

"We just have to redo the area you kind of collapsed in." Asuma sighed, "Next time you decided to collapse out of exhaustion do it away from the ink buckets…"

Kakashi looked inside the room to see symbols written all over the floors and some went onto the walls and then a small area of pitch black smudges and a puddle that everyone was cleaning…that must have been where…

"You feel better Kakashi?" The taller man looked down to see the Hokage looking up at him.

"Sorry abo…"

"Its ok, now go help them finish getting the ink off of the floor…"

XXXX

Neji was blushing.

He was blushing and now standing across the room facing the door.

What the heck did he just do?

He found himself brushing his hands through Akuri's hair and then he…he!

He pulled his fingers up to his lips. They were tingling; he glanced over at the still slumbering boy who hadn't seemed to notice the new lack of warmth.

Why did he do that?

Did he…no. Neji knew there couldn't possibly be any feeling remotely close to what he was thinking because that would be…be…

The milky-eyed boy turned around and walked over to the sleeping form, there was no way that he was in…in…

He turned around.

This was wrong! The kid was probably going to be sent home soon to his family or whatever. Sure he felt comfortable around the kid but that was about it.

Even if the kid was pretty.

That had nothing to do with it.

He just liked him like a brother…that was it. There was nothing else there and he was confusing his emotions.

The teen turned back around and leaned over the sleeping form. A small smile formed on his lips.

There really was nothing more than that.

He leaned down placing his lips against the smaller boys once more.

XXXX

"Gai, go get Iruka and you can tell Neji that he can go home." Hokage nodded towards Gai who quickly left. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yes." Asuma nodded joined by everyone else as they got into their places.

"Okay guys, Iruka is going to stand here," Rei stood inside a small circle in the middle of the room, "I want you to get on your symbols and the focus all your chakra on him."

She glanced over to Kakashi and the ANBU, "You know what to do if I give you the sign." They all nodded.

XXXX

Neji gently shook the smaller from awake as he felt a presence coming.

"Hm?" Akuri looked up at him and then smiled earning a blush from the teen.

"Akuri," Gai walked into the room with a big smile, "would you mind coming with me now?"

"Huh?" The smaller boy asked rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "What about Neji-kun?"

"Oh well he can go home now if he wants." Gai smiled over at Neji saying that he was supposed to go back home now. "You can join him after this okay?"

Neji frowned at the obvious lie, something was going on.

"Okay." The younger boy chirped grabbing the older man's hand and waving bye to Neji as they walked out of the room.

Neji watched as the left before sighing, well if he didn't have to be here anymore…

XXXX

"Alright Akuri-kun, if you could stand here for a moment." Rei smiled pulling the boy into the circle as he looked around confused.

Why were all these other people here?

What was with all these symbols?

"We are just going to try and get you your memory back," Rei smiled he best teacher-smile earning a small smile back from the small from, "Is that alright with you?"

"Sure, if that means I can remember more about Neji-kun." The boy smiled.

Everyone noticed a slight flinch from a certain jounin.

"Well alright, now this may hurt a bit, but can you be strong?" Rei smiled as the boy nodded. "Okay let's start this now."

XXXX

Neji stopped right outside of the mansion as a strange chakra force hit him.

What was that? He glanced over noticing the dojo light up before running towards it.

XXXX

Iruka collapsed in the darkness…what was this feeling?

It was strange…

Suddenly sharp stabbing pains took over his body causing him to fall forward; this was unbearable and familiar at the same time.

It hurt.

Oh gawd did it hurt.

He let out a small cry before looking up and noticing a small light in the distance…what was that?

He forced himself up holding his stomach in pain.

His knees buckled under the pain as he reached his hand out towards the light.

He had to get there.

XXXX

"Agh!" Everyone watched as the symbols in the room moved around the small boy before going onto his body. His knees buckled underneath him as he screamed in pain.

"Stop it!" The boy yelled clutching onto his head. This wasn't what he wanted

Nothing was supposed to go this way.

Green eyes opened widely as he dawned with realization.

"You're trying to bring him back?" The kid yelled catching everyone by surprise, but they kept their focus.

"No…no…"The small form shock his head with tears pouring out of his eyes, "You're hurting me stop this!"

"Kakashi!" Rei nodded toward the jounin and the ANBU with him as they did a few seals and concentrated on the boy in front of them.

Kakashi watched as the boy tried to stand up but was in too much pain.

Was this hurting Iruka? Was it working?

It had to work.

It had to.

XXXX

Neji ran as fast as he could, sliding as he came to a stop in front of the dojo entrance.

What was going on? What was this chakra energy?

"Stop!" His eyes widened as he heard Akuri cry, what were they doing?

He quickly slid the door open only to be thrown back with a chakra blast. He mentally cursed as he fell to the floor looking up ahead to see the boy cringing in pain.

What were they doing?

Why were they doing this?

Neji coughed looking up to catch green eyes in his. He watched as the small form mouthed something quietly to him.

_Good bye._

XXXX

Iruka coughed again as he fell over, this was becoming unbearable, he felt like all his rib were broken by now. He looked up to the light.

So close, that had to be the way out. It had to be.

"Stop." Iruka's eyes widened at the familiar voice. He quickly turned around to see the green-eyed boy crying in front of him.

"Why are they doing this to me?" The boy sobbed looking at Iruka angrily, "I don't understand why they want you back."

Iruka's eyes widened as he spoke, they wanted him back.

"You're useless, you get in peoples ways. I did nothing wrong!" The boy sobbed grabbing Iruka's throat as he floated in the air.

Iruka coughed putting his hands on the child's arm to try and pull him off.

"I did nothing wrong, I worked it out perfectly." The boy glared with his green eyes flaring, "They were supposed to be happy! Happy that I got rid of you!"

Iruka flinched as another wave of pain came over his body.

"But you're…not me." He got out hoarsely noticing the boy's shock in front of him he pulled the hands away from his throat.

"What?" The boy whispered in shock looking at his hands.

"You aren't me!" Iruka shouted this time. "You don't belong here!"

"It wasn't supposed to go this way…" The boy whispered before glaring up at the taller man. "You messed it up! Why are you still here?"

Iruka watched in surprise as the boy fell over in pain. "You need to go away…"

Iruka looked at his hands as an odd sensation came over his body, he watched as his fingers began to vaporize in the air.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Iruka looked at the glaring little boy horrified.

"I'm going to get rid of you before it's too late."

XXXX

Everyone watched as the small from slowly disappeared as the ink surround it.

"Stop!" Everyone stopped as Rei shouted, they slowly watched the ink spin around.

"Is this supposed to happen?" Asuma stared ahead of him. This wasn't like any other genjutsu.

Kakashi got a bad feeling.

XXXX

Neji watched as the ink dispersed revealing Iruka who began to fall over before Kakashi caught him.

His eyes widened.

Iruka-sensei was Akuri?

Iruka…

Neji glanced one more time before noticing he couldn't hear what was going on…before everything went black.

XXXX

Three Days Later.

XXXX

"Are you done visiting Neji?" Kurenai asked as Gai walked into the room with a sigh.

"He's still very confused about the ordeal." The Green Beast looked over to see Iruka still lying in bed with Kakashi holding his hand.

"Well I would be to, what was he thinking barging in there?" Asuma scratched his head, he had been the one to find the passed out boy.

"Who knows…?" Kurenai sighed leaning against the wall. As Hiashi and Hokage walked into the room.

"No changes?" The Hyuga man asked Kakashi who just shook his head.

"What do you think Hiashi?" Hokage looked up at the taller man as he did his Byukagen on the still form.

"Oh…" Everyone turned to Hiashi, "He's waking up."

Kakashi quickly stood up leaning over Iruka's body holding his hand tightly.

"Hn…" Iruka slowly opened his eyes look over at Kakashi who stared at him in shock…He quickly looked around the room and noticed everyone else was giving him the same look.

Green eyes.

"No…" Kurenai put her hand over her mouth…

"Iruka?" Kakashi asked quietly ignoring the fact that his voice had cracked.

"Kakashi, what happened?" Iruka sat up before a sharp pain went through his side, "Itai…"

"Iruka-sensei?" The tan man looked over to see Hokage looking at him surprised.

"Hai, Hokage-sama? What's going on!" He tried to smile but found that it hurt to. "And why does my whole body hurt?"

"You don't remember anything?" Hokage asked surprised, "Do you know everyone here?"

Iruka looked around the room confused, "Yes I know everyone here, why wouldn't I? What's going o…"

Lips interrupted his. He looked surprised at Kakashi as the older man pulled away lifting his mask back up.

"I'm so glad," the silver-haired man sighed still holding on to the now blushing man's hand.

"Would someone please explain to me what's going on!" The chunin finally sighed looking at everyone for answers.

"Well for one," Gai started happily, "Iruka-sensei you have green eyes…"

XXXX

"What do you mean Akuri went home!" A certain blonde boy shouted at Neji who glared back and tried to ignore the ringing in his ears.

"I mean that last night he went home. He's says goodbye to everyone." Neji lied shifting uncomfortably. He still didn't understand the whole situation himself.

But he wasn't going to tell anyone that he had kissed Iruka-sensei.

"Man! I wanted to play with him some more!" Naruto moaned before turning to Sasuke. "It's your fault he left without saying goodbye! He probably will never come back now! You scared him awaaaay…so far awaaaay."

"Wait, what did Uchiha do to Akuri?" Neji asked noticing the new blush on both boys.

"Dobe." Sasuke glared over at the blonde.

"He kissed him." Naruto shot his tongue out at the startled Uchiha…he didn't think he would have really…

Why the heck was Neji shaking against a wall?

"Oh IRUKA-SENSEI!" Everyone turned to watch Naruto run up to Iruka and Kakashi. "When did you get back from your mission? Wanna take me out for Ramen? I'm sad you didn't get to meet this kid names Akuri he was kinda cool and cute! Omg and and…"

"Hi Naruto, How are you?" Iruka laughed patting the blonde on the head.

"Good, no great!" Naruto looked at his teacher confused. "Ne, Iruka-sensei did you always have green eyes?"

Sasuke looked over at Iruka. Green eyes? Scar across the face…tan skin…His eyes widened and he looked over at Neji who seemed to have composed himself.

Neji smirked.

Sasuke blushed opening his mouth to say something but stopped.

"Its okay, I won't tell anyone you kissed Naruto's beloved sensei."

XXXX

Its finally over! I apologize to everyone that's been waiting to see how this story was going to end. I'm trying to finish all my other things before I start anything new!

If its any consolation, I have written this chapter probably two time before this one but every time I finished something would happen to my comp before I could update. So this chapter was me trying to figure out how I originally planned the ending…

To be honest there were no plans to have Neji/Akuri but…well…as I thought about it, I kind of wish I had put more of it in the story. But well…better late than never.

Haha

I hope that yall enjoyed the end of Forbidden Jutsu and I hope I didn't chase anyone away from reading any of my other stories

Thank you for Reading and your beloved patience!

Peace Out

P.S. did any of you guys go to otakon?


End file.
